The Blood of Children
by LuneCramoisie
Summary: Old grudges come to light as someone tries to take vengeance on the next generation of NARUTO. Little do they know that a legacy lives on in them, making them stronger and whole lot more troublesome. BEING DRASTICALLY REWRITTEN UPDATE PENDING
1. Chapter 1: A Night for Kidnapping

Author's Note: I would like to apologize DEEPLY for extreme out-of-character-ness. I just have such a hard time keeping characters that are not mine IN CHARACTER. I don't know why. It's just weird. I would like some critiquing, though, (not criticizing.) as to how to make my story better. I already know how out of character everyone is. I do not own Naruto nor the universe of Naruto. Though the current Raikage, Hakka Hyuuga, the Hyuuga spawn, Uchiha brats, and Uzumaki whelps ARE mine. I do not own the title of Raikage, but the the current Raikage. You might recognize her from my other fic, The Shifting Balance. I do not see me continuing that one in the near future, my deepest apologies. It seemed like such a cool idea at the time but... I ran out of inspiration. There is no excuse for me dropping it and I am deeply sorry.

And about the pairings... I really, REALLY do not care that you do not like these pairings. I don't really like any pairings. I just kind of randomly chose from the most popular. -shrugs-

Please enjoy. -bow-

I hate the editing thing. I CAN'T GET MY SPACES WHERE I WANT THEM. -seethes-

* * *

Tenten sat bolt-upright, heart pounding and dripping cold sweat. She put a hand to her chest, sucking in deep breaths of the cool night air. The spring moon hung fat and golden outside of the window, peeping through the plum tree out in the courtyard. 

She tried to still her pulse, counting down backwards from twenty. Why did she feel afraid? She glanced around quickly. The room wasn't totally dark, lit as it was by the full moon. It threw dramatic shadows and she was surprised that she could have slept at all with it so bright. Something had made her start awake, heart racing and mind in a whirl. Something wasn't right.

"Neji!" she hissed, poking the still form beside her. He didn't move. "_Neji!_" He muttered indistinctly. She hated to wake him up. All of the on-duty shinobi had been working nonstop after the forest-fires had swept through the area not two weeks ago.

Tenten shook her husband with one hand, grasping the kunai she kept under her pillow. Neji finally turned over, opening one bloodshot eye and croaking, "_What?_"

"Something's not right." Tenten whispered, easing the blankets off of her lap and sweeping the room with her eyes, adjusted to the strange lighting. With that, the clan head was immediately awake, albeit with a huge yawn. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, finally making a hand-sign and tensing in concentration. _Byakugan!_

* * *

Why did he always have to work with the stupid brats? He melted from shadow to shadow like black oil, avoiding the creaky floors in the centers of rooms and sticking to the walls. He mentally growled in disgust at an ornate wall-hanging. What right did the Hyuuga have to be such a wealthy and powerful clan? He could sense the sleeping forms of Hyuuga clan members throughout the house. He passed by the rooms of the two elder Hyuuga children. _Naw. Stick to the littlest._ He reminded himself._The littlest are the least trouble. Master only needs the Byakugan. One should do._

He crept around the final doorway and paused, looking down on the still form. The child's room was lined with toys from teddy-bears to children's shuriken. He noticed a half-open coloring book by the head of the mattress against the wall, a quilt patterned with waves flung over it. He leaned over the little form beneath the quilt.

Haruki Hyuuga slept peacefully, one thumb in his mouth while his other hand was clamped protectively over a puppy that had somehow managed to sneak into his room. The shinobi rolled his eyes and let out a soundless sigh. Children.

One second Haruki was in his bed, the next he was under the shinobi's arm, being carried swiftly out of the house.

* * *

Hinata was meditating in the main family room, hair in a loose braid so that it did not tangle when she should have been sleeping. She could feel Naruto-kun dead to the world and hear him snoring like a thunderstorm in the bedroom. Namiki was adding her own higher-pitched chorus on the other side of the house, though she fiercely stated that ladies did not snore. Megumi was quietly asleep, dreaming of the day when he would become part of the ANBU black ops.

* * *

Though she was supposed to be in bed, Suzume couldn't lie down for more than a moment before she felt the need to get up again. She sat in the patch of moonlight that came through the hall window, her pink quilt splashed with Uchiha fans wrapped about her. She kept alert. If mommy or daddy found her awake, they would send her straight back to bed and she wanted to stay up. But daddy wouldn't wake up easily. He'd said about two words before falling asleep on the couch three hours ago and hadn't stirred since. Mommy wasn't much better off. Running after two lively kids all day while pregnant could take it out of a woman. 

The floorboards creaked and a big shadow loomed over her. Suzume squeaked and looked up. She sensed something was off about whoever cast the shadow. "Kaa-san?" she asked, head cocked. The shadow responded with a tap to a nerve in her neck and a blade.

* * *

Neji jumped to his feet and dashed out of the room and down the hall, so focused on what he saw with the Byakugan that he nearly ran into the wall. Tenten flung a shuriken out of the window and into a paper-seal on the plum tree outside. The effect was instantaneous. An unearthly screeching filled the air, waking all of the inhabitants of the Hyuuga estate.

* * *

He cursed as the sudden shrieking made his heart stop a moment. Stealth be damned, he was just going to get away. He didn't like the idea of encountering a full-grown Hyuuga. Those bastards could be _scary_. Haruki chose that exact moment to wake up and blink, looking around with wide eyes and finally settling on his captor, mouth forming a perfect 'O'.

The shinobi said a string of choice phrases, starting with using them on himself and then cursing every Hyuuga that had ever been born. _What the hell? This kid has brown eyes!_

"The Hyuuga boy doesn't have the Byakugan!" he hissed into his short-distance radio microphone. Haruki blinked, and then began to wail. The kidnapper knew his ass was toast. He could hear voices raised over the alarm. "Shut up!" he snarled, drawing a kunai to silence the crying child but a hand glowing with furious chakra put an end to his plans. Suddenly gone limp, he dropped Haruki but gentle arms caught him before he could hit the floor.

His mother hugged him tight, making shushing noises and trying not to cry herself. Neji stood over the fallen kidnapper, eyes radiating cold fury. "How _dare _you touch my family," he spat. "Hakka!" the chuunin in question stepped forward.

"Sir?" Hakka was hurriedly shrugging on her happi coat.

"Alert Hinata-sama and the Hokage." Neji turned over the would-be kidnapper with one foot, noting the Kumogakure headband. Otherwise, the shinobi was dressed all in black from nose to feet. "Their children are of Hyuuga blood as well." He looked up, meeting the pale eyes of every Hyuuga. "One of our own was nearly taken tonight!" he raised his voice so everyone could hear, but he didn't have to. Not one person made a single sound save for Haruki, whose tears had died down to sniffles. "There could be more scum trying to take children."

One moment the room had been full, but the next, every Hyuuga young and old was activating their Byakugan and sweeping for enemies.

* * *

Hinata tensed, hands flashing through a series of hand-signs. _Byakugan, the all-seeing evil eye! _"Uzumaki-sama!" She relaxed. She knew that voice. Someone pounded on the frame of the main door to the Hokage Residence. "Uzumaki-sama, please open up! It's Hakka Hyuuga!" Hinata undid the lock and slid the door open. Her cousin bowed and said, breath making faint white clouds, "Haruki-sama was nearly kidnapped just now." Her blood ran cold. Memories of her own attempted kidnappings chased each other around her mind.

"Is he all right?"

"He's fine," Hakka flapped her hand. "Scared, but just fine. Neji-sama caught the guy. He told me to tell Hokage-sama and you." Hinata nodded and stood aside.

"Please come in. I'll go wake him up."

"Naruto!"

He growled something about Sasuke-teme stealing his lunch. "Raaaaaamen, Naruto-kun! Can you smell the ramen? Mmm, miso ramen!" he made a noise that might have been, "Yeaaaaah, raaaaaaameeeeeeen." He sat up in a daze the noticed it was still dark.

"Hinata?" he blinked, trying to decide whether it was worth getting his brain to work. Hinata got straight to the point.

"Haruki-chan was nearly kidnapped tonight." He was awake immediately and looking for his headband. "Neji-sama sent Hakka-san to tell us. Neji-sama thinks the kidnapper might be after Megumi or Namiki as well." Naruto growled low and deep in his throat.

"I'd like to see him try. Did they kill the bastard?" Hinata trotted after him as he pulled on his shoes.

"I don't know. Hakka-san?" Hakka leapt to attention and bowed deeply before the Hokage.

"The kidnapper was alive when I left, Hokage-sama." She said respectfully. "I suppose you will want to question him?"

"Yes. What village?" A bemused look came over the young woman's face.

"Kumogakure, Hokage-sama."

Hinata and Naruto blinked with confusion in unison.

"Cloud? Really?" they exchanged looks. They _knew _the current Raikage. She was a fine woman and a stronger kunoichi there never was.

"Yes, sir. If you would come with me? We should hurry." Naruto shook his head.

"It's just the Hyuuga house, right?" Hakka nodded. "I can go by myself. Stay with Hinata. I don't want you-" his gaze lingered on his wife, her face beautifully lit by the moonlight. "-or anyone else to have to handle these bastards alone. It could have been just the one Kumonin, but I doubt it. If they got past the alarms the Hyuuga have set up, we can't underestimate them. Inform Sasuke. The Military Police should know. We don't want to cause a panic, so be discrete."

"I think the alarm Tenten-sama set off put an end to all efforts of being discrete, Hokage-sama." Hakka said frankly.

Naruto made a noise of agreement and disappeared in an instant with only a flash of bright hair.

* * *

A thump and a shriek startled Sasuke awake as he lashed out at an enemy that wasn't there. He sat upright on the couch for a moment, wandering if he had just dreamed the sound. A high-pitched giggle came from the hall outside the family room. He slammed the door back to find his youngest child going through the pockets of an unconscious kunoichi. A voice was coming from the shinobi's earpiece.

"Junko? Junko, answer! Do you have the Uchiha brat? Damn it, answer me!"

Coldly, Sasuke picked up the intercom. "Junko won't be talking to you anytime soon. She's sleeping." The radio crackled and went silent.

"Sasuke? What hap- SUZUME!" Suzume smiled brightly up at her mother.

"Kaa-san, shuriken!" she crowed, holding up one such lethal instrument. Sakura knocked it out of her hands and hugged her only pink-haired child close.

"Don't scare me like that ever again," she said, relief and fear making her cross. Sakura met Sasuke's eyes, cold steel in their green depths. "Cloud." She growled, jerking her head in the unconscious kunoichi's direction. A tarnished headband gleamed in the moonlight.

"But we know…" Sasuke began, and trailed off.

"They could be acting without her jurisdiction." Hakka slid open the window and perched on the sill. The Uchiha all jumped horribly, save for Suzume who was busy watching dust-motes in the light. "Uchiha-sama, Haruki Hyuuga-sama was nearly kidnapped tonight. I guess Suzume-sama was as well." She waved to the pink-haired girl and the four-year-old waved back

"A rash of kidnappings?" Sakura didn't like the sounds of that and she held Suzume so tight that Suzume squeaked. Hakka shrugged.

"Hokage-sama said that the Military Police should know, Uchiha-sama. He went to talk to Hyuuga-sama. I'm going back to Hinata's- erm, the Hokage Residence. The Hokage says not to confront these shinobi alone, if there are more of them." She made a wry face. "They got past the alarms at the Hyuuga house."

Sasuke massaged the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. "I'm going down to the station," he said at last. He looked at Sakura, eyes worried. "But I don't want to leave you and Suzume and Ichiro alone, let alone with another one on the way…." Sakura gave him a look and patted her swollen belly.

"I'm not some delicate little flower," she told him crossly. He recognized the tone and cringed inwardly. "I can take care of three people."

"But-"

"We can go to the Hokage Residence, Uchiha-sama!" Hakka burst out, trying to head Sakura off. She knew from Tenten to _never ever _argue with a hormonal woman. "It's safe and stuff and it's plenty big…" Sakura opened her mouth to argue. "But I'm sure Uzumaki-sama would be glad for the company." Hakka added quickly. She was treading on dangerously thin ice. "You know how she is. The kidnapper first went after a Hyuuga child and her children are Hyuuga blood as well and… I'm sure she'd be glad for your level head." She finished somewhat lamely. There was utter silence, broken after a few uncomfortable moments when Sakura sighed.

She got to her feet, balancing Suzume on one hip. "Shoo," she told her husband. "Go and look for more of those nasty shinobi."

"But I-" Sasuke quailed under the glare of three females, two of which had pink hair and green eyes, the third having the scary Hyuuga peepers. "Okay." And he left as quickly as possible, only just realizing that he had fallen asleep fully-dressed, shoes and all.

* * *

"You don't really think…_Kurai-san_ sent them, do you?" Hinata poured tea while Namiki sleepily tried to teach Suzume how to play shogi and the four-year-old with candy-floss hair bounced up and down, wide-awake. Ichiro and Megumi had fallen right back to sleep on a bundle of quilts in the corner. Sakura sighed and took a grateful sip of tea.

"I don't think so," she said, frowning into the golden liquid. She looked tired for woman with a baby under her heart, but she refused to sleep until the all-clear was given. "They could be rogue ninja."

"Though she keeps a close eye on her people," Hinata pointed out.

"One woman can't baby-sit _every_ ninja in Kumogakure-"

"Uzumaki-san? Uchiha-san?" a head poked around the open sliding door that lead into one of the main hallways. The shinobi was a young man with tousled dark brown hair that was just barely kept in check by his Konoha headband. He wore the vest of a chuunin. He nodded in respect. "Hokage-sama has given the all-clear. Uchiha-sama is giving his report to the assembled jounin and higher-ranked chuunin. The city is still under close watch, should another kidnapping be attempted."

"What about the Raikage?" The chuunin looked at the floor in embarrassment.

"Hokage-sama doesn't want it to look like we suspect Kumogakure," he said frankly. "But the Raikage will be contacted."

Sakura nodded and took another sip of tea.

"Good. I want to get this all cleared up. Who knows what could be next."

* * *

Kyakyakyakyah... will continue. X3 Hormonal women scare me. 


	2. Chapter 2: The Raikage Gets Buisness Don

Author's Note: More apologies for out-of-character-ness. This is where it should stop for a long time, I can assure you. I'd originally forgotten about Anko and just squeezed her in there. Darn she's fun. Once again, critiquing is more than welcome, but please me nice about it and tell me EXACTLY what you think I did wrong.

Please enjoy.

* * *

"_This _is Konoha?" the boy sounded fairly impressed. "It's huge!" his aunt – really his elder third cousin- cuffed him. 

"Don't look around like a hillbilly, Yasutora," she admonished, patting her blonde wig. "What's your name?"

"Gorou," he repeated dutifully. "Gorou Terada, from a non-shinobi village near Kumogakure. But Oba-san-" he got cuffed again.

"What is this 'oba-san'? When did that start? I'm not an old lady, and I'd like you to remember that. While we're here, it's Yorune Terada, okay?"

"How come you got a good name?" Yasutora whined, following "oba-san's" lead and pulling on his broad-brimmed hat. "How come I have to be the Fifth Son?"

"Because you wanted to be called Akihito!" the false Yorune retorted. "That's a lord's name, kid! You can't be incognito with that!"

"And Yorune is better? The Sound of the Night? You're too flashy." Another cuff.

"Just shut it, Yasu. You wanted to come, remember? You _begged_to get me to start teaching you how to walk on clouds! You _begged _me to take you with me! I don't need a guard, Yasu." He muttered something incoherent but probably rude.

Yorune sighed and tied the wide obi around her waist. She wore her usual clothes under. She thought she would go made if she just had the kimono and nothing else. Even in her traveling bag she only carried a short knife and certain cooking implements so as not to arouse suspicion. Yasutora was dressed as a wealthy merchant's son and was posing as her nephew, though he'd always called her "Auntie" before.

"Let's go, Yasu. Stay out of trouble." Yorune hefted her walking stick and assumed the posture of a reasonably well-to-do, gently reared young woman. Yasu just glowered and slouched, muttering grumpily, "Yes, Raikage-sama."

He banged his head down on his desk with a small groan. He _hated_paperwork. Hated, hated, HATED it. Who didn't? The day had gotten warm for late spring and it was damnably stuffy in his office, even with the window open. He groaned again. The Raikage was supposed to be arriving incognito that day. She'd even refused to let him know what she was disguising herself as. There was a sharp rap on the door. Still with his face in his paperwork, he called, "Come in!" the door creaked open but he didn't hear a single footstep.

He looked up quickly, reaching for a kunai as a strange blonde woman strolled into his office, her wooden geta not making a single sound against the floor. "And you are?" _No one escorted her. _He thought, tensing.

"Naruto-kun, I'm crushed." She cried out dramatically, hands flying to her bosom as if stabbed. But then she got a wicked gleam in her eyes; eyes he only just noticed were yellow cat's eyes. "Or do you prefer 'Hokage-sama' these days?" she asked sweetly.

He stared with his mouth open for a moment. She jerked off her hat and wig, bowing like an actor at the end of a performance. Her hair was jet black underneath the wig and fell past her waist, enhancing her already pale skin. Naruto got to his feet, grimacing as his muscles protested. "Likewise. Are you Kurai or Raikage-sama?"

She shucked her kimono and folded it up neatly, stuffing it into the traveling bag she carried. Underneath she wore a white shirt with black pants and the Torakiba yin-yang symbol on the back. She artfully turned her straw-hat inside out, revealing the white and yellow of the Raikage. The kanji meaning "lightning" was on the front. She placed it on her head then plopped herself into the chair in front of Naruto's desk. "Between us and old friends," she said conspiratorially. "It's Kurai. Frankly, my ears bleed when you say 'Raikage-sama'. When did you ever get so polite?" Naruto shrugged in reply.

"Diplomacy is a must for this job, I tell you."

"Diplomacy?" Kurai sniggered, so much like her younger self. "Did I hear right? Or is that a new Ramen flavor?"

Naruto made a face at her. She returned it.

Then, the air seemed to go straight out of their sails and they heaved identical sighs. Only a Kage could understand another Kage's stress. "So…" Kurai began, propping her elbows up on the Hokage's desk and just barely managing to not knock over a cold cup of coffee. "What's this I hear about my ninjas?" a shadow passed over Naruto's face. He got up and motioned for his guest to do so as well.

"I figured you'd want to talk to them yourself." He said grimly. Kurai blinked.

"What, they're not dead?"

"We don't go around needlessly killing people," he retorted. Kurai grimaced.

"This is Konoha, not Kumo. There's war afoot, back home. The daimyo seems to have insulted another lord. Of course, Kumogakure had nothing to do with it but guess what? I'm up until ten doing paperwork. He wants bodyguards he wants soldiers he wants assassins. He wants the best of the-" here she said something very choice –"Best."

"Ten?" Naruto thought back on the many times he been up until sunrise filling out forms. The Kage's work was nothing but paper. "That's not so bad."

"Ten in the _morning._" She growled, and only just then did he notice the dark circles under her eyes.

"Hokage-sama, Kurenai said… oh." The jounin in question saw that someone else was in the office.

"Shikamaru! How long's it been?" Kurai said brightly. Shikamaru muttered something about "troublesome" and was starting to close the door before he remembered.

"She's here to see the prisoners?" he asked, his question directed at Naruto. Bones crackled as the Raikage menacingly cracked her knuckles.

"I want all the other jounin to be present," he requested. Naruto never ordered a friend around. He'd found out that trying to phrase his "orders" politely saved him a multitude of bruises. "This is going to be interesting."

"Troublesome, more like." Shikamaru corrected, scratching the back of his neck. "This is going to be a looooong day."

"I kind of feel sorry for them," Kurenai muttered to Kakashi, who chuckled darkly in reply. The ferocity of the Raikage towards her enemies was nearly legendary. She fought not only with strength and skill, but with fury and the intense protectiveness of a tigress over her cubs.

"I'll leave you in charge of questioning. We've gotten all we could out of them without leading to the really… _painful_ methods." Naruto explained, nodding to the jail-keeper. "We thought we should keep them in at least one or three pieces for you to talk to." Kurai responded with bared teeth, keeping in stride with the Hokage as the jounin brought up the rear.

"Oh goodie." Her voice sent chills up the spines of several of the newer jounin.

The cell door slammed open, the male kidnapper shackled to a chair that was in turn bolted to the floor. He took one look at Kurai, saw the Raikage hat, then gulped. The cell was large, so everyone could fit inside. Neji Hyuuga had made a point of being there, not only as a jounin, but as a vengeful father. He had been present for the first attempts at questioning the enemies, but they hadn't gotten very far. The ninja didn't show up in the Bingo Book, so they weren't that important.

Sasuke Uchiha was also there, as chief of the Military Police Force and as the dungeon was underneath the station. He had personally questioned the kidnappers, but was no more successful than anyone else. But, and here he looked sidelong at the Raikage, he remembered fighting the savage kunoichi more than fifteen years ago, during the chuunin exams, and other times when they had sparred. She had been weak at first, leeched as she was by her now deceased twin. But she had grown amazingly in power and was a master of genjutsu and other such arcane arts.

"Oh, I know _you_," she said, sauntering over to the man tied in the chair. He began to perspire profusely, staring straight ahead. She motioned to the chuunin who would be taking notes. "This is Yamaguchi Shouhei, Chuunin. He actually _is_ from Kumogakure. He had a wife and daughter, but they were killed last year during one of the skirmishes. They'd been visiting family on coast. Official reports say that bandits got them, but I doubt twenty bandits could stand up to even one chuunin. Isn't that right, Shouhei?" he didn't say anything.

Suddenly, she lashed out, clawed hand sinking into his shoulder and surprising a scream out of him. "You're not the only ones that have had near-kidnappings," she went on conversationally to the present jounin as if they were at a pleasant board meeting. There was a murmur of surprise. "One child was Katsuro," she named her son, six years old. "The other was my cousin Kagemaru's youngest child, Izumi. Who was nearly kidnapped here, again?"

"My son, Haruki." Neji's voice was cold and his pale eyes like chips of ice as his stare bored into Shouhei.

"And Suzume, my daughter." Sasuke treated Shouhei to a scorched left ear, making the man yelp.

"There's a pattern," Kakashi said suddenly. They all looked at the experienced jounin. "They're from powerful old families."

"If they wanted powerful old families, they could have gone after some merchant folk," The sadistic Anko drawled.

"Or other shinobi clans, like the Inuzuka," grunted a jounin in the back, maneuvering a toothpick to the opposite side of his mouth.

"It's the ones with blood limits." Realization dawned on them. Neji, Naruto, and Sasuke exchanged grim looks. Their precious children possessed the Byakugan and Sharingan.

"You want our kids for something," Kurai dug her claws in deeper, incisors growing needle-sharp and longer, eyes burning an even more intense amber as the slit pupils held Shouhei's own round ones. He began to feel afraid. The Hokage had scared him, sure, when that feral grin had asked him if he was going to be cooperative or, as the other jounin with him had offered, _troublesome_. The Uchiha was pretty fearsome, too. He'd heard gruesome things about the Sharingan users, how they could steal your soul or make you relive your worst memories. And the Hyuuga… he'd seen Hyuuga clan members before, when he'd been a genin during his chuunin exam. There was always a Hyuuga in some major event. But the current clan head was particularly cold and his eyes so hateful that they made the rest of his face look like some gruesome mask.

But the Raikage… he'd seen her do her work. He'd known her when she was a weak little strip of rawhide that could be blown away in the next passing breeze. The dramatic change was incredible, and she even had the gall to destroy her own _twin…_ brutality was bred into the Torakiba line along with strength. This was the woman who had trained under the infamous Inazuma Torakiba. This was the woman that had no problem killing people with her bare hands, fancy jutsu aside. He knew just what she was capable of, and he didn't find that comforting.

"What do you want our children for?" she hissed into his face, nose only an inch from his own. He'd gone cross-eyed trying to keep her in view. As far as he was concerned, the greatest danger was the madwoman who was breathing carnage into his mug. He didn't answer. "_Tell me!_" he suddenly had visions of unspeakable things, horrible things that had already happened and one day would happen all over again.

He cried out as she released him, withdrawing her claws out of his flesh. She nodded to the Hyuuga present, and the Uchiha. They nodded in return. Shouhei felt surges of chakra from both of them but his concentration was focused on his Raikage. "Shouhei, be a dear and tell me why in the world you would ever wish to kidnap Haruki Hyuuga," she purred, voice so sweet that it made his teeth hurt. And that was enough to get him babbling. The woman was certifiably insane by his measure, and more unpredictable than a rabid tiger.

"I don't know!" he exclaimed shrilly. "I really don't, Raikage-sama, _please, I don't know!_" he began to weep, watched with intense disgust by the shinobi present, including the secretary chuunin. "I… she… they told me that they could bring my wife and daughter back if I helped them! You must believe me, Raikage-sama, I wouldn't harm a child, truly. I only wanted Emiko and Mitsuki back." He cried in earnest, a broken man in a dire situation who only wanted his wife and daughter back.

Kurai turned her back on him and only Naruto saw the tear she wiped from her eye. She wasn't as heartless and cruel as she presented herself. Who would respect a woman that got sentimental or an enemy?

"Who's they, Shouhei?" her voice did not shake but she still did not face him.

"I don't know, Kurai-san!" he forgot all formality in trying to plead with a former colleague. "I just got a note on my bed one day, saying that if I ever wanted to see Emiko and Mitsuki again, I'd do exactly as they say! They didn't tell me what they were going to do with the children, pleas believe me!"

"But you _did _know." Kakashi's voice was neither kind nor cruel, rather lacking in any sort of expression. "You knew that it couldn't be good, what they were kidnapping children possessing kekkei genkai for. That's why you were about to drop Haruki and run for it when Neji caught you. Whoever you were working for needed the blood of the kekkei genkai, and the easiest way to get it is from the weakest members who have not yet developed their blood limits: children."

"How did your kid get away?" Kurai asked Sasuke curiously. "The two who tried to kidnap Izumi Katsuro were caught after Katsuro got his claws in one." She smirked with pride at the memory. A strange look came over the usually stoic ninja's face, as if he were trying to suppress a similar smirk.

"Acupressure," he answered. "Suzume's been watching Sakura work. I don't know how, but she got a nerve in the scum's arm."

"Sharingan, anyone?" Naruto chuckled. They all joined in for a few brief moments.

The room and atmosphere grew cold once again.

Kurai turned her eyes to the captive man once again. He flinched and began to tremble, his face tear-streaked. "You're not leaving anything out, right, Shouhei?" she asked quietly. He shook his head vigorously.

"I've told you all I know!"

"What is your relation to the woman who tried to kidnap Suzume Uchiha?"

"We were just on the same mission. I don't even know her name."

"Why does she wear our village's headband?" He shrugged.

"Probably so if we got caught, it would not seem so strange."

"He's right. Why would two shinobi from different villages be kidnapping on the same night in the same village?" Kurenai mused aloud. "But why Cloud?" Neji and the two Kages grimaced.

"It was Cloud that tried to kidnap Hinata-sama when we were young." Neji had many sore memories of the incident. It was because of Cloud that his father died.

"It's despicable," Kurai spat. "Kidnapping or harming noncombatants is the lowest of the low. Ever since I became Raikage I've been working my ass off on peace treaties."

"Which mean no more than the paper they're written on," Kakashi put in, scratching his nose under his mask.

"And I can assure you all that these kidnappings had _nothing_to do with my orders. As you know, my son was nearly taken. And you also know my views on kidnapping as a whole." She glared around the circle of jounin. Some fidgeted nervously; the ones who had suspected her.

"Raikage-sama, what was the village that the shinobi who had tried to take son and Izumi from?" Naruto's voice was deeper, more mature, and more formal in front of the stranger. Kurai stood up straight, steel in her eyes. She spoke just as politely.

"Sunagakure, Hokage-sama." There were mutters of disbelief. "And yet when I questioned them, they didn't even know the name of the yakitori place down there. And Kazekage-sama knew nothing as well."

Kurai nodded curtly to the jail-keeper. "Take this one away and bring in the kunoichi." Shouhei's sigh of relief was nearly audible when no-nonsense shinobi untied him and swept him away. The woman had hawkish features and straight black hair chopped severely to her jaw. She stank of ill-will. "Not mine." The Raikage said immediately.

"We think she's Amegakure. She speaks in that dialect."

"Name's Junko," Sasuke added. "Whoever was on the other end of her radio was calling her that. She went for Suzume.

"Ah, Junko. Did your parents use the kanji for 'pure child'?" Junko remained silent, only sending a hate-laden glance at her questioner. Kurai paced around her captive, trailing her hand along the back of the chair. "I was first in my class with torture and investigation," she hissed into the other woman's ear. "You want to see _how _I managed to get such top marks?"

"Bite me, bitch." Junko snarled. Kurai blinked, then grinned. The men present took a few steps back. They recognized the look of an angry woman. Hell had no fear from them when a female got mad. Kurenai only glared with her red eyes at Junko and Anko grinned, being the only female jounin present besides the Raikage.

"I may very well do so. You know more than Shouhei did. I know you do. You're higher up than he is in the information line. Oh, and," Junko was struggling to form hand-seals. "Suicide jutsu are blocked." She jerked her head in the direction of the scrolls papering the walls. Junko sneered and threw back her head, mirthless laughter echoing and rebounding against the concrete walls of the cell.

"I'm not telling you anything!" she cackled. Soon, her cackle turned into a choke as her eyes bugged out. Something invisible was constricting her throat.

"Stop her!" Sasuke looked to the heart of the jutsu with his Sharingan but there was no way he could think of a way to counter it before she exhaled her last, a triumphant look still in her blank eyes.

The Raikage made a small noise of anger. "Damn." She peeled back one of Junko's eyelids further, examining the pinprick of a pupil.

"Not a suicide jutsu." Neji stated.

"A killing jutsu, attached to her and probably some sort of listening device as well." Kakashi started going through the woman's pockets.

"It's already been-" Sasuke started to say until Kakashi ripped out the seams of the lining of a hidden pocket and produced a round black button-like thing. "-done."

"Shit! They heard us." Naruto slammed his fist against the wall. The chuunin taking notes scuttled to the other side of the room.

"All we can do now is send out more spies and alert the people." A jounin in the back growled.

"I'm getting all my people not on active duty to cultivate birdies." That was slang for "all my people not sent out on homicidal missions for money to go and scare people into giving up information". "Damn, more paperwork."

"Hokage-sama!" a scarred chuunin skidded to a halt in front of the open cell door and bowed. "The captive Shouhei has just died. It looked like someone had a strangling spell on him or something." The room went dead quiet.

"There goes the torturing," Anko muttered regretfully while the rest just joined.

After the inevitable meeting that ensued, it was starting to get dark. The Raikage looked like she had been steamrolled. The Hokage as if he had been chewed up by some monstrous thing and spit out, judging by how his hair was in a wild state after running his fingers through it so many times in frustration. Finally, about thirty minutes after everyone else had left and the two Kages had basically zoned out, Naruto asked, "Where're you staying?" Kurai blinked out of her stupor before stifling a huge yawn and saying, "The inn by the West Gate. I sent Yasutora to get us a room. He's a silly bastard but he's good for _something_."

"Yasutora?"

"Kagemaru's eldest kid. He wants to be Raikage someday. He's enough like you to really bug the hell out of me. But, he's family, what can I do? He begged to come with me."

"Where is he now?"

"Oh crap." Was all the other Kage said, getting to her feet with a groan. "I said he could wander around a sight-see like an idiot. Amazingly, he was happy to do so. He's probably gotten into some sort of trouble by now. He's quite talented in that area."

"There's a Torakiba wandering around Konoha?" the idea made him feel faintly ill as he sensed yet another mountain of paperwork in the making.

"Not wandering, persay. _Roaming_. Torakiba do not wander. We roam."

They chatted and crabbed about paperwork, waved to the secretary the secretary, and proceeded towards the Hokage residence. "…and the Old Lady has corrupted my children."

"You should see my mother if you think that's bad. She bills and coos and teaches Katsuro _ikebana_. Ikebana, to a boy! He's got his pride, I tell her, and she just tells me it's my fault for not birthing a girl! And then I say-"

"Oba-san! There you are! I've been looking all o-" a dark shape ran at Kurai but she grabbed her "nephew" by the back of his shirt and scowled ferociously at him. Nobody else was on the street, having gone home for dinner.

"You are addressing the Raikage, scut." She told him sternly. "And the Hokage! Show some respect."

"Respect? I don't have to give you respect!" he sputtered indignantly. "What the heck is your problem? You just leave me at the gate and tell me to 'stay out of trouble' like I'm some stupid little kid and-"

"Because you are a stupid little kid and if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times to not call me Oba-"

"You're just bitter because you don't like being called old!"

"BECAUSE I'M NOT!"

"YOU'RE THIRTY! YOU'RE OLD!"

The scuffle that ensued wasn't quite up to par. They looked more like a two touchy felines where the young tom had stepped on the older female's tail. Which, hypothetically, had happened.

Finally, Kurai had gotten her subordinate into a headlock and very smugly proceeded to say, "This is the Hokage. Say hello."

"Hello." Yasutora muttered sullenly. Then he suddenly picked up. "Is it true you made up the Oiroke no Jutsu?" Naruto grinned, looking very much like a fox.

"Heheh, better believe it!"

"Did you make it up as you went along? Or did you have mo- OW!"

"You are corrupting my nephew!" Kurai gasped after giving Yasu a firm shake. "How dare you!"

"You've spent time around Old Man Jiraiya!" Naruto countered. "If the kid's training under you, he doesn't need me to corrupt him."

"Naruto-kun, I was corrupted long before that. Many variations of The Talk with my old sensei, as she thought I 'needed to know'." Her eyes softened at the memory of her old teacher, the now-deceased Inazuma Torakiba, born Umeko Torakiba. "But, that's what you get when most of your family has kids and less than a fifth ever get married."

"Tou-san married!" Yasu piped up.

"That's because your father is an old-fashioned biddy."

"Am I an 'old-fashioned biddy' then, as well?" Naruto demanded, outraged.

"Of course, Hokage-sama," Kurai teased him with her Cheshire cat smile on her face. "Of the highest degree. How is Hinata, anyway?" Yasu's stomach growled, Kurai's joining in a second later. Maybe the day had been a bit too long, as Kurai and Naruto burst out into fits of laughter while Yasu looked at them like they were crazy.

"Come on over for dinner, and you can ask Hinata-chan yourself." Naruto offered. "She has a nice way with sukiyaki."

"What, you're eating things besides ramen?" Kurai pretended to look shocked.

They continued to bicker and insult each other all the way to the Hokage residence, Yasutora following and muttering about "crazy grown-ups".

* * *

Okay, the kids are up, next chapter! 


	3. Chapter 3: Sadistic Sisters not his!

Freetalk:

Hehe. Enter Haruki and company! This chapter is mainly introduction and a bit of a filler. This fanfiction, so far, looks like it will mainly focus on Haruki and Suzume and their friendship, not just blooming romance. I type Megumi's actions and speech and I can't help but scratch my head and go, "lyk lol omg wth?" He's so strange. I think that shall be his character. :3 I forget sometimes that he's Naruto's kid and that Haruki isn't. Megumi is just a pretty perfect Hyuuga while Haruki is kind of a sucky one. Megumi is basically very cool and slightly arrogant, most of the time, but he has these totally Naruto-like outbursts, like when the Scary Sparrow hits. oO He also, I guess, will have a quiet ramen fetish (don't we all?)

Haruki didn't do a lot of hanging-out at the Hyuuga house. He mostly spends time with "Auntie Hina" and greatly admires "Uncle Lee". The majority of his life is spent running away from Namiki and Miho. 3 Enjoy.

* * *

"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

"Haruki come back!"

"No, you're mad! Mad I say! Get away from me!"

"Come back Haruki-chaaaaaaaaan!"

"ARRRRRGH!!!"

People turned and laughed, calling out encouragement to the young boy dashing down the street as if the hounds of hell were on his heels. His hair was curiously set in an assortment of bows, barrettes, pigtails, and braids. Two older girls chased after him, calling sweetly. One had dirty-blonde hair and dark blue eyes, dressed in forest-green. Her companion had light reddish-brown hair and was decked out in orange and dark blue. Her Konoha forehead-protector, serving as a hair-band, glinted in the sun. They cackled as they ran down their prey.

The boy, Haruki, had the most shameful urge to cry for his mother but he knew it would do him no good, besides embarrassing him further. He rushed by two other boys. "Help me!" he begged as he flashed past them.

"Do you think we should-" the older boy began, his hair a few shades darker than the blonde pursuer's and up in a short, spiky ponytail.

"No." his young friend said quickly, pupil-less lavender eyes grim as he watched his cousin run for his life from his sister. "Better him than me."

"I second that. How troublesome."

Finally, when all seemed lost, Haruki rounded a corner into an alley and heard a voice say, "Haruki! Up here!" he obeyed without question, bounding onto a trash-can and making a spectacular leap to the top of the alley wall. A pretty pink-haired girl beckoned him into an air vent. He scrambled in beside her, desperately trying to slow down his racing heart.

"He's gone?" that was the blonde. He cringed farther into the air vent.

"Guess so. Too bad." said her red-headed companion.

"Come on. I want to show you the new magazine I got, anyway." Haruki did not hear their footsteps retreat but he didn't expect to. They were ninja, after all, and a footfall is a shameful thing to a shinobi. Instead, he could feel their chakra growing distant and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh dear lord what _happened_ to you?" he turned red and wriggled out of the vent, followed by his best friend Suzume.

"They got me." He said sullenly, pulling clips out of his hair and wincing when one wouldn't let go.

"Here, let me." He turned an even deeper shade of red when Suzume gently untangled a barrette and asked, "Wanna keep it?" he muttered something and she laughed. "Did Miho get you with Shadow Bind?"

"No. I… fell asleep." He mumbled. There was an admonishing cluck from his pretty friend.

"I thought you could sense when people were near you?"

"It really only applies to people who mean me harm. Though I categorize_this _as harm." Finally getting all of the accessories off of his person, he made a few hand-signs and torched them.

"But you looked so pretty, Haruki-chan!" she cooed wickedly. He made a face at her. "All right. Fine. Not as pretty as me, though." She struck a model pose and blew a mocking kiss at him. He said something incoherent and turned away, leaning over the roof of the building they were standing on.

"If I had the Byakugan, they wouldn't be able to sneak up on me." Haruki said bitterly, shoving his hands into his pockets. Suzume made a frustrated noise and punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"Fool! Not the Byakugan again."

"_You've_got your blood limit," Haruki argued. He would never forget the mission when his best friend's eyes had grown suddenly scarlet and the unnatural way she had countered their opponent's jutsu. She gave him an annoyed face.

"That's beside the point."

"Every Hyuuga has the Byakugan except for me."

"Namiki doesn't have it," Suzume pointed out, naming the Hokage's eldest child and one of Haruki's tormentors. "She's a Hyuuga, by blood if not by name."

"But Megumi has it."

"So only Hyuuga males? How sexist is _that?_" she propped her hands on her hips, eyebrows at vastly different levels in her consternation. Haruki recognized the danger signs and tried to calm her down.

"No, that's not what I meant."

"That sounded like EXACTLY what you meant. And you're pissed that Hanami and Hamono have the Byakugan."

"I'm not pissed! Just annoyed! They've got the kekkei genkai and they never let me forget it."

He turned his back on her, shoulders hunched.

"This is about your dad, isn't it?" the wind immediately went out of his sails.

"This doesn't have a thing to do with my father." He growled.

"You shown him the version of Jyuuken you've made up?"

"No."

"I'm sure he'd be very proud."

"He's never been proud of _anything _I've done.

"You should show him how you can sense chakra points."

"He doesn't have the time."

"I'm sure he'd make time."

"He won't."

"He will."

"Won't."

"_Harukiiiiii…_"'

"Okay, fine."

"Promise?" she jabbed him hard in the small of the back. He turned around. She held up her pinky, a stubborn light in her green eyes.

"Do I really have to?"

"Promise!" He linked his pinky with hers and they shook on it.

"Fine. I promise."

* * *

"_Hey, you're Haruki, right?" He looked up, scrubbing his eyes with the back of his hand._

"_Yeah."_

"_Why are you crying?" he crossed his arms and turned away from the nosy little girl._

"_I'm not crying!" he denied._

"_Yes you are. You're sad. Why are you sad?" he scuffed his shoe in the dirt, obliterating the sketch he had been doing with a stick in the dust._

"_People cry when they're happy, too." He retorted._

"_But you're not happy. Tell me why you're sad."_

"_I don't have to tell you anything." He stomped off._

_But the little tick was not going to give up. He glanced over his shoulder, noting her bright pink pigtails and the prettiest eyes he had ever seen. She carried a stuffed panda-bear under one arm and he saw the Uchiha fan emblazoned on the chest of her red dress._

"_I'm Suzume." She said, trotting to walk next to him. "Uchiha Suzume. Douzo yoroshiku." Someone had taught her the manners of introducing one's self, but not in leaving other people alone._

"_Leave me alone."_

"_But friends don't leave when friends are sad!" Haruki stopped, staring at Suzume in amazement._

"_We're not friends."_

"_We're not?" she looked like she was about to cry._

"_No! Don't cry!" he panicked. "Please don't cry!"_

_Suzume sniffed, eyes over-bright. "But I want to be friends."_

"_We can be friends." He was more confused than ever. When the pink-haired girl smiled, it looked as if the sun had come out. She didn't just smile with her mouth, but with her eyes as well and they sparkled like gems. Haruki felt his face growing red._

"_Suzumeeeeeee!" someone called. Suzume looked over her shoulder. Then, without warning, she hugged the boy and ran off, calling, "I'm glad we're friends, Haruki-chan!"_

_He just stood there, in shock, not quite knowing what to make of the strange girl. Slowly, he grinned, a new spring in his step. "I made a friend!" he crowed, jumping and punching his fist into the air._

"_Haruki!"_

"_Coming, Mama!" he yelled, running towards the sound of his mother's voice. The morning had started out rather grim, but he decided it was the best day of his life. He couldn't wipe the grin off of his face and didn't even feel the need to as he passed his stony-faced sisters. After all, he had a friend!_

* * *

Kyakyakyakyah... training, next chapter. Kakashi-sensei is so sadistic. 


	4. Chapter 4: Knowing When to Quit

"Whelps, pay attention." Kakashi Hatake, famed Copy-Cat Ninja of Konoha and lover of all pr0n, was on his second genin team and he found the similarities between them and his team unnerving. The serious blood-limit kid, the pink-haired girl, and the boy with big dreams who felt dead last. They were also the children of his old students and their friends. But strangely enough, only Suzume was anything like her parents. Haruki, though looking a lot like his mother, was the polar opposite of his father. Same thing with Megumi. They would have almost done better switching places, but Kakashi knew they all loved their families no matter what.

That's why it was nearly a physical pain that plagued him when Megumi and Haruki sparred against each other using Jyuuken. Megumi clearly had the advantage with his Byakugan, the veins standing out in his temples and the Hyuuga mask perfectly fitting his face. Haruki, though, tried his best even without the Byakugan. He had somehow developed a sensitivity to the chakra of other people, especially the higher concentrations of chakra in a person's body that were the chakra outlets. He had magnificent control, as well, that matched Megumi's.

But no matter how many times it was proven that they were equal in skill, Haruki trained with a sort of obsession as he tried to overcome his cousin's natural advantage that he was envious of. It couldn't have been easy, Kakashi reflected, to grow up in a clan where you could not be what people expected of you. Haruki, unlike Megumi, did not have the Byakugan and that was an endlessly sore spot for the boy. That's why, drum-roll please, he had a surprise for them.

"I have surprise for you." Haruki and Megumi only looked vaguely suspiciou, trying to out-do each other in indifference. Only Suzume briefly paused in spinning a kunai around one finger to look up expectantly.

"What's the surprise, Sensei?" she asked.

"You understand the chuunin exams are coming up?" the genin exchanged looks, the two boys losing their look of dispassion while the girl bit her lip, hardly daring to believe her ears. "If you can do this one task for me, I'll enter you in it. But, _only if you complete this task._"

"Just give the word!" Haruki and Megumi chorused. Startled, they glared at each then resumed their indifference. _Oh dear. _The jounin refused the urge to massage the bride of his nose. _Not again. Well, if I get rid of them I can get back to reading._

Three scrolls appeared in the gray-haired jounin's hand, three very _large _scrolls. "You each get a scroll with a list of tasks written out on them. You must do them in order and with the scroll on your person. You may not drop the scroll at any time whatsoever. You have until four to complete the scrolls and be back here. If even one of you fails, none of you get entered."

"But that's not fair!" Suzume cried, outraged. "You can't punish everyone because one of us didn't make it!"

"Suzume, it'll be easy. Stop worrying and let's go." Megumi snapped, feverishly eyeing the scrolls.

"Stop bragging and do it." Their sensei pulled out a bright orange book splashed with a crossed-out symbol. The scrolls were gone from his hand before he could blink and small clouds of dust where his students had been. He smiled, his lone visible eye twinkling. They wouldn't be quite so cocky later.

"What the hell?" not only did the scroll weigh about a hundred pounds, it was written in gibberish. Haruki bent low over it, pausing in his mad dash. _Not gibberish, _code. _Ugh, Kakashi-sensei, really. This will be easy._ He ignored the civilians who passed him by, giving him strange looks. He had five hours to complete his mission. The code started out simple enough but soon he scowled. "Damn it!" he muttered. Who had even invented that code? It looked like random pieces from other forms of code had been smashed together into an incoherent jumble. Some pieces of the list were missing altogether, their meanings only to be picked up from other places around Konoha.

_He really needs to get a girlfriend, _Suzume thought, propping her hands on her knees and panting, the scroll slung over her back. _He has way too much time on his hands. _The scroll weighed more than she did and it didn't help that her back was about ready to give out.

"Damn, Suzume, what contest in hell did you win?" she looked up, wiping sweat off of the "noble brow" she had inherited from her mother. Tsuro Nara looked alarmed to see her in such a state, hands in his pockets.

"Just a task," she panted in reply, straightening. She over-balanced and the scroll dragged her to the ground. The older shinobi was about to help her up but she waved him off. "Kakashi-sensei says that if Megumi and Haruki and I complete all of the tasks on the scroll while carrying the scroll by four o'clock, he'll enter us into the chuunin exams."

Tsuro gave a low whistle, dark blue eyes vaguely impressed but all the while suspicious of the infamous jounin. "Sounds troublesome."

"It is," Suzume sighed, finally standing up again and not even bothering to wipe the dust off of her dress, too afraid of falling down again. "Well, I must be off. Tell Miho I said hi, okay?" Tsuro grimaced.

"No promises. I'm trying to avoid her. Ever since Haruki escaped yesterday, she and Namiki have been after _me_." Suzume found she had just enough energy to chuckle.

"Heheh. Good luck."

"Same to you." And she was off before her legs collapsed again.

"Holy-" what Megumi said was not fit for publication. He had managed to get all of the written tasks on the scroll done, and just in time, too. He felt like all of his bones had turned to jelly and he lay flat out on the ground, pale lavender eyes staring up at the canopy of leaves over his head, unfocused. His dark hair was dull with dust and sweat, and his normally red shirt was brown.

"I… concur." There was a thump and a small groan of pain as his team-mate flopped down a few feet from him. Megumi didn't have the energy to turn his head to look over at his cousin. "I kind of want to die right now."

"Me first." The Uzumaki boy muttered tiredly.

"Ladies' first." Suzume collapsed under the weight of her scroll and didn't bother to get up again, merely to struggle feebly out from under the crushing object so she could breathe.

"So, how'd it go?" three hate-laden glares fixed on the sadistically well-meaning jounin with the shock of gray hair He winced. "That bad? Don't focus your enmity no me. You have no one to blame but yourselves."

"Focus… enmi'y… hu-eva I wan'!" Haruki said into the grass.

"Did you do everything on the list?" Megumi rolled out the scroll. There were scratches through the lines of code that looked like they had been done with a kunai in the thick paper.

"I did."

"Me."

"Me too."

Kakashi scrutinized the scroll. He sighed, straightening and pulling out his orange book. "No, none of you did." Haruki sputtered something into the grass that was no doubt obscene. He raised his head, propping himself up on arms that trembled with strain.

"WHAT? I did everything on the list!" he rolled out his scroll with no little difficulty, Suzume following suit.

"You didn't do everything on my list, and time's nearly runt out." He produced a pocket watch that ticked away it's last second of 3:50 in the afternoon. Megumi was about to say something extremely rude when Suzume shoved his head into the grass.

"Where is the rest of the list, then?" she asked coolly. Kakashi felt the faintest stirrings of pride. _Huh. With Sakura's brains and Sasuke's calm, they've got a kid who can think under pressure and shock. Finally._

"Why, right here of course." He pulled a small phial from one of the pockets on his vest and poured it over the margins of the scroll. More jumbled code appeared. Haruki stifled what was probably a sob and feebly punched the dirt. Megumi didn't say anything, just stared at the paper in disbelief.

"There's still nine minutes left!" Haruki started to struggle to stand, even though his muscles shook with exhaustion. Suzume gently pushed a tendon in the back of his knee and he collapsed with a strangled yelp.

"We failed, sensei. Easy as that."

"Haruki's right. There are still nine- wait, eight- minutes left." Kakashi pointed out, hoping against hope that Suzume was getting what he had intended.

"Sensei, with all do respect-" the jounin winced inwardly at the biting sarcasm in her words. _Oh yeah. Sasuke's kid._ "-We're exhausted. No, shut up, Megumi. Honestly, Kakashi-sensei, we'd kill ourselves trying to decode and do the last things on your list within the time-limit with these _fing scrolls on our backs._" Haruki and Megumi snarled at the bit about the scrolls.

_Note to self, _Kakashi inwardly noted. _More strength and endurance training. _Anything to annoy the offspring of his most infuriating yet greatest students.

"Do you accept that you can do no more?" Very, very slowly, the Uzumaki boy raised his hand, pale eyes fixed sullenly on the ground. He was covered in dust and looked pitiful with it coloring his nearly-black hair tan.

"I accept." Haruki had to suffer a sharp prod from Suzume before he said, "I do too."

"Then good!" Kakashi clapped his hands together briskly, smiling broadly beneath his mask. "You've passed." They looked at him like he had suddenly done Oiroke no Jutsu and danced the can-can on the Hokage monument.

"F." Haruki said emphatically.

"Don't swear." Haruki's sensei bonked him on the head with his NC17-rated book. "The point of this exercise was to teach you when to quit."

"WHAT? But that's so stupid! What kind of half-assed exercise is that?" Megumi burst out, sounding uncharacteristically like his father.

Suzume didn't answer, merely passing out. "That was the problem with my last team… the parents of some of you." He looked with amusement at the unconscious Suzume and the two boys as they bent over her worriedly. "They didn't know when to quit and would have avoided so many life-threatening situations if they had just given up. There's no glory in dying and the ultimate fool is the dead one. You've passed and I'll enter your names for the chuunin exams. Go home. You have the rest of the day off." And he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

A few minutes of conserving their strength later, Haruki and Megumi were finally able to rouse their pink-haired team-mate. She immediately berated them for letting her pass out and for not waking her up sooner.

"Suzumeeeeeee…" Haruki whined, nursing the bump on his head. Megumi quietly sat there with his eyes watering, a similar bump on his head. "Why do you hit so hard?"

"Because your skulls are so thick!"

_THUNK._

"Uwaaaaa!" Megumi let out a very uncharacteristic noise of pain. No one could reduce the two greatest Konoha rookies to sniveling girly-men like the Scary Sparrow.

The squabble ended when Megumi's stomach rumbled. The boy (poor baby. Shortest on the team) raised his hands into the air. "Ramen time!"

"That sounds good," Haruki admitted. His stomach growled in annoyance.

"Come on come on come on!!!" Suzume grabbed her team-mates and dragged them to their feet. "Let's go, I'm starving." They left the scrolls behind, the three chattering and bitching like siblings.

Kakashi was right and wrong. The three were so much like his first genin team, but they were so different as well. Sakura wasn't a silly girl bent on stalking her crush, Haruki wasn't a dead last class clown, and Megumi had it in him to act like a human-being once in a while. Maybe it was for the best that they didn't follow the legacy before them.


	5. Chapter 5: Heloooooo Suna!

Author's note: I love Suzume. End of story. A more well-blended embodiment of Sakura's two versions. I do not own Naruto (And if I did Sasuke would not have gone bad. NYAH!!!) but I DO own ALL of the second generation kiddies, as well as Kurai the Raikage. Pleas enjoy.

* * *

"He what?!?!"

"He said he'd enter us in the chuunin exams, dad. Chill." Sasuke Uchiha was not a happy camper. His daughter, _his little girl, _was going to be entered in one of the most horrifying events of a young ninja's life: the chuunin exams. He and Sakura exchanged looks, easily read by their daughter as she sat sullenly at the low table. The twins were out back playing, watched reluctantly by big-brother Ichiro.

The memory of their own chuunin exams experience was thankfully scarred over, but it still left a lasting impression.

"No." Sakura said quickly. "No way. You're too young."

"Remind me how old you two were when _you _took your exams."

"That's beside the point-"

"It has everything to do with the point!" No one had the art of insolent down quite as well as Suzume. "Ichiro got through fine! So did Hamono Hyuuga."

"Ichiro and Hamono Hyuuga were two years older than you when they took it. I don't like you getting thrown into something you're not ready for," Sasuke said through gritted teeth. He came home to what? His kid being excited about the hellish 'exams' that were set before children. True, his son had gotten through all right… but his little girl… that was going much too far for any father.

"How do you know I'm not ready?" Suzume cried, outraged. The Uchiha clan head found himself almost wincing. Suzume looked and acted a little too much like his wife for comfort. "I am _so_ ready! I ran around Konoha today with a hundred pounds of scroll on my back! I've been on C-rank missions, dad! C! And we all got home safely."

"Relatively. Megumi got burned when one of your techniques went wide, Suzume." Sakura said sternly, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning down at her almost-clone.

Suzume turned red. "But that was an _accident!_"

"Accidents can't happen in the exams, Suzume." Sasuke said, his voice just as stern as his wife's. "A mistake can get you and your team-mates killed. It's not a mission with a jounin there to guide you. You're on your own with your team-mates and the proctors are more often than not late in coming to the rescue."

"We won't need rescuing!" his daughter protested. "We'll see danger coming! With Megumi's Sharingan and Haruki's chakra senses, we'll be fine!" He noticed the danger-signs of barely-controlled temper in Suzume's blazing eyes. He looked sideways at Sakura and, to his horror, found her looking no longer stern but thoughtful.

"Oh no." he groaned. Sakura looked at him.

"What?"

"You agree with her!"

"I neither agree nor disagree," she retorted. "There_ is_ a method to her madness, Sasuke."

"Hey!" but Suzume was ignored.

"Haruki can't even keep Uzumaki and the Nara girl at a distance with his chakra senses!" their voices died down to furious whispers.

"He senses _danger, _Sasuke, as Suzume has said so many times if you listened. She can see through her enemy's attacks and Megumi has the Byakugan. It's a little shaky, yes, but he can see far enough."

"I can't believe it."

"You don't have to. Kakashi is a fickle, perverted old man, but I wouldn't think he'd put the lives of children needlessly in danger."

Sasuke snorted in disbelief. "Remember when we went to Water Country on a 'D-rank' mission? We all know how well _that_turned out." His voice was laden with sarcasm.

"It turned out rather well, as it ended up being a highly-ranked mission! We got through alive and Tazuna still writes us!"

"The chuunin exams are in Suna! That's too far for us to keep an eye out!"

"For_you _to keep an eye out, you mean. Our exams were a disaster but every one since then has gone over just fine." He was wise enough to know when he was defeated.

"All right…" he said grumpily, turning back to his daughter. "When do you need to leave for Sunagakure?" Suzume screamed and hugged her father, planting a kiss on his cheek and ran out to tell Ichiro after embracing her mother as well. "I'm going to regret this, I just know it."

* * *

"Otou-san?" Haruki lingered in the doorway of the main room of the Hyuuga mansion, watching his father as he went over the accounts. Neji Hyuuga looked up, pale lavender eyes so unlike his son's.

"Come in."

"Thank you." Haruki respectfully bowed his head and took a seat on the floor cushion before his father's. "Umm…" Haruki started to speak but trailed off, looking hard at the floor. Neji waited. "I… we… I mean, my team… Kakashi-sensei says we're going to participate in the chuunin exams in Sunagakure this year. It's in a few weeks." He braced himself for the disapproval he knew he would get. He felt a warm weight descend on his head. He raised his eyes slightly, shocked. The Hyuuga clan head never actually smiled, but he might have at that moment.

"You'll do fine." Was all he said to his only son. "Good job." And that was the best feeling ever. He was actually, though he did not say it,_proud _of his Byakugan-less son.

* * *

"NO WAY!!!" Namiki leaned forward across the table, eyes bugged out. Her mother looked a little faint. Naruto had looked surprised at first, but had then grinned, ruffling his son's hair.

"Atta boy! Kick ass, you hear me?"

"I can't _believe _you're in the exams! I can't believe you even made it to genin, really."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Megumi replied sarcastically to his sister.

"Chuunin exams…" Hinata whispered, hands turning into fists in her lap. The Hokage put a strong, comforting arm around his wife and kissed her temple.

"Ours were hell, but he'll be okay. He's an Uzumaki, he's tough as nails, right, son? I was going to be a judge, anyway. Kurai and Gaara will be there. I'll keep my eyes open; make sure no one gets killed, all right?" Megumi nodded enthusiastically.

"Please, mom?" he pleaded.

"I still can't believe it!" Namiki was muttering to herself. She'd tried the chuunin exams the year before and was _still_getting over the experience. She was finding more of an interest in gardening and she and Miho had already semi-seriously joked about forming a partnership someday with the Yamanaka floral shop and Namiki's amazingly green thumb.

"You'll promise you'll be careful?" Hinata knew that once the men in her life made up their mind, it was a dreadfully messy process to try to get them to change.

"Promise." Megumi replied solemnly, gazing back at his mother whose eyes he shared. She sighed.

"Stay out of trouble and _obey the rules._" Megumi lunged across the table to hug his mother then immediately jumped back, muttering apologies and turning red while his father and sister laughed.

* * *

"Holy crap-in-a-hate, it's _hot!" _Haruki wiped his forehead with the back of his wrist, having moved his forehead-protector from his head to around his arm where it was slightly cooler.

"It's called a desert for a reason," Kakashi pointed out, the heat not bothering him in the least. As long as he had a non-too-healthy supply of pornographic novels, he was good.

"Aren't you hot?" Megumi asked, incredulous, as he eyed his sensei's black face mask and long black pants and sleeves.

"Ninja don't get hot." He replied lightly. Suzume scowled, already lobster-red from the sun.

"We're ninja and we're broiling!"

"Grown-up ninja," Kakashi corrected smugly. He liked the heat. It was _too_ hot and _too _dry for the brats to make _too_ much trouble.

Haruki hoisted his rucksack higher up on his shoulders and scanned the village below; centered around the Kazekage residence and office. Only one other team from Konoha had entered, and that was Rock Lee's team. "Let's just get inside," he growled grumpily. He started off, Megumi and Suzume following without comment. Kakashi swiftly took the lead and enjoyed his students' silence.

"Oh no." the grey-haired jounin stopped suddenly, lone visible eye going wide. Suzume, Megumi, and Haruki ran into him.

"Watch where you're going, old man!" Haruki said indignantly. When Kakashi didn't answer, the genin all craned around their sensei for a better look at what made him stop.

"Oh no." Megumi echoed.

A tall, serious-looking red-haired man with pale-green eyes walked with a slim, cat-like woman. The man wore the traditional robes of the Kazekage while the woman the robes of Raikage. She fanned herself with her hat and had pinned up her heavy dark hair off of her neck. She spotted the Konoha team with her pale amber eyes, a smile curving her delicate mouth. The Kazekage merely stopped and nodded respectfully.

"Why Kakashi-sensei, you passed _another _team? May the wonders never cease." She cried theatrically.

"That's-"

"Yeah." Haruki finished for Suzume.

"Ano… Raikage-sama!" Megumi hopped out from behind his sensei and bowed. The Raikage's eyes were not such a harsh yellow when she looked upon the genin.

"Megumi-kun, you've grown. And you must be…" she trailed off, realizing that she didn't know the other two genin.

"Uchiha Suzume, douzo yoroshiku." Suzume bowed, Haruki following suit.

"Hyuuga Haruki."

"Please don't bow," the Raikage winced. "I really don't deserve it." She glanced up at the sun. "Is that really the time?"

"We've got a meeting about the exams. The Hokage should be meeting us there. Kakashi-san, genin," the Kazekage nodded to them and motioned to the Raikage for ladies' first. She waved to the Konoha ninja and walked off with her fellow Kage.

"If she's here, then Cloud's competing." Kakashi said, a slightly strained sound to his voice. "But she wouldn't be here if it was only Cloud." He looked regretfully down on his students. "You're going to be up against a Torakiba."

"Then we'll just sic Koga on them!" Haruki said stoutly, naming the latest Inuzuka genin who had also entered the exams.

"Yeah, and I would _love _to clean up that mess," Suzume retorted sarcastically. "Carnage much?"

"No offense, but if you're in a one-on-one with one of them, you're dead. You should consider withdrawing."

"WHAT?" Haruki was outraged. "Never! I'm not surrendering to some jumped-up bastard with a blood-limit!" Megumi bristled while Suzume just rolled her eyes at her team-mate. Next second he was lying flat out in the dust, earning strange looks from the natives.

"Megumi! What the hell was that for?!" he shouted.

"WHAT JUMPED-UP BASTARD WITH A BLOOD-LIMIT?"

"NOT YOU, STUPID!"

"DON'T CALL ME STUPID, EMO!"

"WHY YOU-"

They set up great clouds of dust as people scattered from the area. The boys forgot all jutsu in favor of the time-honored brawl. Kakashi attempted to wade into the fray but he felt a small hand holding him back. Suzume had a good grip on the back of her sensei's vest, chakra sticking her feet to the ground. "Um, Sensei, if you don't want to lose that other eye, it's safest on the sidelines," she said, speaking from years of experience.

"But-" f how embarrassing.

"I'll take care of this." Suzume said, wincing at her sunburned skin when she tried to smile reassuringly. She took a deep breath and activated her Sharingan, disappearing into the great clouds of dust.

"Okay, boyohs, that's ENOUGH."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! SUZUME!!!!"

"NOTTHEHAIRNOTTHEHAIR!!!!"

"Mercy!"

"Yeeeek!"

The dust settled down, two sand-coated boys with their proverbial tails tucked firmly between their legs. Suzume had a shirt-collar in each hand. She was slightly out-of-breath and even redder in the face than before, but she looked satisfied. "You should be ashamed of yourself," she scolded, dragging them over to where Kakashi-sensei waited. He sweat-dropped. "The Hokage's only son and the Hyuuga clan head's only son as well? Be glad that the other villages will probably make more noise than you." She shook them soundly. The boys looked like kicked puppies before the Scary Sparrow. Kakashi sweat-dropped. _Oh boy. This is going to be an interesting month._


	6. Chapter 6: Chuunin Exam: BEGIN!

Author's Note: Enter the newest prodigy of the Torakiba clan: Katsuro! He's like his mother, I swear. A feisty, sarcastic, god-looking tom-cat if there ever was one. And Kazuki. I like Kazuki. And, just a note, all Kumogakure ninjas, as I have portrayed them, talk tough. Super scary tough. No, Katsuro never had a twin, don't worry. And Kankurou hates kids.XD Enjoy. I do not own the Naruto Universe. Amen.

* * *

The next day, Megumi and Haruki covered in band-aids while Suzume looked like a lobster with her red-dress and magnificent sunburn, the genin team pushed through the doors of the waiting room for the written part of the exam.

"Wow." The doors swung shut behind the rookies and every hostile eye of the older genin present turned upon them. Some had scars, some had a mean glint in their eye, and some looked like they had already been through a meat-grinder. They came from villages all over, from Grass to Snow. They ranged in ages from seventeen to thirteen. A few rookie-looking teams sat at the picnic tables towards the entrance doors.

"Hey, Megumi, Haruki, Suzume! Over here!" Momoko Akimichi waved them over to a few empty spots at her table. Her team-mates Koga Inuzuka and Yuuta Aburame waved in greeting. Three genin from Cloud also sat at the table.

"Hey, what happened to you guys?" Koga's puppy, Jun, barked at them.

"Oh, we ran into some enemy ninja on the way here," Megumi replied airily as he sat down, Suzume and Haruki on either side of him. Momoko let out a scream of laughter.

"Suzume-chan beat you up again, didn't she?" the two girls exchanged knowing looks.

"We didn't lose to a girl!" Haruki cried indignantly, starting to turn red.

"There's nothing wrong with losing to a female," Yuuta said quietly into the collar of his jacket. "Especially when they are a friend and worthy opponent."

"Here-here," agreed one of the genin from Cloud, a handsome boy with yellow eyes and a cat-like face. He looked about fourteen, two years older than the Konoha rookies. "You're Haruki Hyuuga, Megumi Uzumaki, and Suzume Uchiha, right?" they eyed him warily.

"What makes you think that?" Suzume asked icily. The boy smirked.

"I've done my research. As kids of Konogakure's elite ninja, I make sure I know my opponents well."

"Yeah? And who are _you?"_ Momoko demanded.

"Katsuro Torakiba, right?" Megumi sneered. Katsuro sneered right back. "The Raikage's son. Nice you meet you."

"And you."

"Katsuroooooo, you're ignoring us AGAIN." Snapped Katsuro's female team-mate, a delicate-looking creature with wide green eyes and reddish-blonde hair. "I'm Asuka Uotani. He's Kazuki Uotani, my brother." A boy with the same green eyes and reddish-blonde hair nodded and raised a hand in greeting. "He doesn't talk at all, so don't think he's rude." Kazuki grinned wolfishly and pulled down the collar of his tan jacket, exposing a long scar across his throat. "We had a disagreement a while back."

Megumi and Haruki looked slightly pale, imagining their sisters doing just that to their own brothers.

"Twins," Katsuro said by explanation. "They're like that, in Kumo."

"Oh, charming. I have twin little sisters." Suzume muttered. Katsuro laughed.

"I had a twin brother, once." He said, mock-thoughtfully.

"Had!" coughed Koga.

"We don't like twins, in my family." Katsuro smiled sweetly but still managed to expose every bit of his over-large canines.

"Hey, brats!" a door at the other end of the room slammed open and a scary-looking man wearing purple war-paint and dressed all in black with a huge bandaged bundle on his back stalked in. He smirked at them. "I'm Kankurou, one of the proctors of this exam. I'll assign you a number and you sit in order by your number, got it? Through this door is the written exam room. There will be less than half of you left within the hour if I have anything to say about it."

The chuunin hopefuls all got in line with much shoving and kunai-ing. Megumi, as shortest in the room, got shoved to the back. He scowled and sulked as the line slowly moved forward. The proctor in black, Kankurou, sniffed and looked Megumi up and down, his lip curling.

"Don't think because your father is Hokage that you're going to get an easy time, kid." He growled. Megumi gave him his, "I'm a Hyuuga_and _an Uzumaki so you suck" look and said, "My number?" Kankurou snarled.

"Lucky number thirteen. It's your day, kid."

He was stuck in the second row, his team-mates at opposite ends of the room. Other teams were similarly placed apart. He scowled, at the blank blackboard. The redheaded girl, Asuka, was sitting next to him.

"Soooooo…" she asked, propping her chin on her laced fingers and batting her eyelashes at him. "Got a girl you like back home?"

"_What?_"

"Or are other girls outside of your village too exotic for you?"

"Don't scare him _too_ badly, Asuka-chan." A wicked-looking brunette leaned over the long desk behind them. She wore a Cloud forehead-protector.

"Can't I just terrify him a little bit, Mayu-sempai?" Asuka begged, green eyes mocking. Mayu snickered and slapped Megumi hard on the back.

"Congrats, kid! You've got a stalker!"

"Everyone shut up and sit down!" Shinobi melted out of the walls, ten on either side of the room. They lined up like sentries. Kankurou paced in front of the room, eyeing the wannabe chuunin like the delinquent students they were. "There are nine questions on the pieces of paper that will be passed out shortly. You WILL NOT look at them until I give the word. You have exactly forty minutes to complete all of the questions. You get a bonus question at the end. You all start out with fifteen points and every question you get wrong will result in a lost point. If even one of you on your team is caught cheating,_your whole team is disqualified._ Do I make myself clear?" he barked. No one made a sound. The test papers were distributed and Kankurou turned over an hourglass on a desk before the chalkboard. "You can begin."

Haruki looked at the first question and his mind went absolutely and completely blank. He swore mentally a few times, just to make sure his brain was working. He picked up his pencil a held it over the paper, trying to get some inspiration. The older genin next to him chuckled and wrote like the wind.

_Hey, Haruki. Know the answer?_ The most unnerving thing about Suzume, he was sure, was how she copied jutsu like a monkey and used them with reckless abandon. Her most recent favorite was the Shintenshin no Jutsu technique she had watched Miho use. It scared him witless when his team-mate would pop into his mind unannounced. He didn't want her to be privy to his thoughts. _Yes, that Amegakure girl has big breasts. Whatever. _Suzume said tartly and Haruki winced.

_The Kusagakure ninja in front of me? Get him to move his head-band to the back of his head and adjust it thirty degrees on a slant to the left. The guy next to me seems to know all the answers. You can come back and pick them up._

_Will do._ And she was gone. The Kusanin in front of him suddenly shuddered, then turned his headband around. Haruki grinned and leaned forward slightly. The answers from the guy's next to him test were reflected in the shiny metal plate of the forehead-protector.

He copied them down, trying to at least follow along a little bit with the notes and calculations and reckoned them to be at least semi-correct._He's either a genius, he's been in the test before and they had the same questions, or he's a planted proctor. These questions are WAY above any genin level. Jounin and above, I think._

_Will she stop chewing on her damn pencil?!?!?_ Megumi clenched his teeth and winced as Asuka next to him was busy staring at her test and gnawing on the eraser end of her pencil._She's driving me insane!_ He quieted his mind with a humongous effort. The real pain in the ass that there was only one row in front of him and therefore only one row that could be copied from without being too obvious. The questions were obviously not meant to be answered by genin, or even most new chuunin. Just to be sure…. _Byakugan! The all-seeing evil eye! _He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes as if he were taking a quick nap. He added deep-breathing and the odd snore to complete the illusion.

He could see with perfect clarity through his eyelids and through the person in front of him, for that matter. No good. The genin was nervously tapping his pencil against his blank paper. He obviously didn't have the answers. The guy next to him… no. And so on and so on. No one in front of him had the answers. So he turned he turned his roaming gaze around and chanced upon the busty Amegakure kunoichi that Haruki had seen. He accidentally-on-purpose strengthened his Byakugan and quickly wiped away the beginnings of a nosebleed. Naruto genes + Byakugan Ultimate Pervert. He sighed regretfully. She didn't have the answers.

He finally found a genius-looking kid from Suna and copied his answers down. He noticed Katsuro Torakiba sitting in an apparent napping state. _Wait, he's using a Doujutsu too?_ Then he stopped panicking, noticing the almost imperceptible movement of Katsuro's ears. _He's listening to the sound patterns people's pencils make. Tricky bastard._

That's just what Katsuro was doing. He propped his feet up on the desk, ignoring the annoyed snort from the older genin next to him. He relaxed against the back of the hard chair, his lean build and affected nonchalance making him look even more feline. _Asuka will be fine. She's a vain, chatty thing but she loves anything that will give her a one-up on everybody else and that includes smarts. And Kazuki…_ he smirked, thinking of his often-underestimated team-mate. _I swear he and Asuka have some sort of mental connection. She'll tell him the answers, leaving me as the odd-man out. Oh well. My ears are better than theirs. So, carry the 2 to the thousand's column and divide the answer by the circumference of the circle? Easy as pie_.

Suzume had quickly memorized the answers to her victim's test and rapidly wrote them down as soon as she returned to her own body. _Ah, Miho-chan thank you ever so much for demonstrating that particular jutsu._ But she still felt a little winded from the chakra use. She would have to carefully conserve her energy, then, as she remembered what Namiki had said when she'd come back from the chuunin exams in Kusagakure the previous year.

_"The chuunin exams are a bitch," Namiki said to her little brother's team-mate as they sat on the top of the Hokage Monument. "You're run ragged every minute, thrown from one part of the exam to the next. You go from written, to survival, to fight… then you have a month to prepare for slaughter. The last part of the exam is the most brutal. Everyone knows they have only one last chance to become a chuunin before waiting another six months for the next exam. The best are left in the last part and it gets UGLY. They couldn't stop this one kid from totally maiming his opponent. When he was done with them, his opponent lacked an arm and had a serious head-wound. He was all-in-all okay, but you can't just re-grow a limb and he couldn't be a ninja after that."_

She spent the rest of the time staring into space and making noises of sympathy when team after team was disqualified for cheating. The Sunagakure proctors were a sharp-eyed and touchy lot.

"TIME'S UP!" Kankurou bellowed, startling most of the genin. Katsuro cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck a few times, hearing bones crack. He winced at a vertebra that hadn't given up being sore from the time his neck had been broken when he fell to the bottom of Cloud Gorge. "This bonus question is life or death for you brats! Give up now and try again next year, or get the question wrong and be forever stuck as genin. Your choice." There were sobs of despair and about 12 three-man teams left, leaving thirty-six wannabe chuunin. "Any more?"

"Just shut up and give us the damn question, will ya?" Katsuro drawled, getting his mouthiness from his mother. "I think it's pretty obvious no one is leaving. Am I right?" he glanced around the room and received stony looks from the other participants. "There. Question, please." He relaxed even further into his chair as if it were a throne. Kankurou growled.

"Then, much as I hate to say it, you brats have passed the written part of the exam. Follow Gorou outside and don't be pests." A young chuunin dressed all in white with a burnoose on his head held in place with his forehead-protector nodded. Megumi was first in line, then, trying to get as far away from Asuka as possible. But she followed him, getting snickers from the other genin in line. She babbled at him as they went outside again.


	7. Chapter 7: It's called SUNA for a reason

The heat and sunlight combined were like physical forces, forcing the silly mortals that had dared to venture outside into the burning sand. Suzume whimpered when she saw the dark cloud on the horizon that was approaching quickly. That stopped at the edge of a canyon. A dark shape seemed to come out of the cloud. The shape soon turned into a woman gliding on a fan. She touched down and nodded to the chuunin, who bowed respectfully.

br 

"All right listen up, you lot. The storm's approaching faster than we originally thought so we don't have much time." She stared down her nose at them all. Her blonde hair, divided into four spiky ponytails, made her look like some angry desert bird. She wore a dark kimono and carried her giant fan with ease, at home with the heat and dryness. "I'm Temari, the proctor for this part of the exam. You get through the canyon in one piece in the next twenty-four hours and you pass."

"That sounds too easy," one genin said doubtfully, eyeing the iffy horizon. "What's that?" The woman called Temari smirked at them all, some sort of unholy glee glittering in her dark eyes.

"That, my dears, is what we call a sandstorm. Nasty things, sandstorms. If you stay out in the open it will erode you down to the bone; cloth, skin, and flesh alike. You are each going to be issued a strip of red cloth that will serve as a marker. Tie it somewhere on your person and make sure it's visible. You lose your marker, you don't get through. Steal each other markers and there are less people to get in your way later on. You get a standard survival pack containing one gourd of water and three energy bars. You're going to quit the exam and need help? Blow the whistle in the pack."

Everyone looked ill at the prospect. The red cloths were passed around and so were the packs. Genin patted themselves down furtively, making sure that weapons were still in place. The chuunin called Gorou whispered something into Temari's ear and pointed at the sandstorm. She looked surprised to see it so close, nearly covering the sun. The assembled people could hear it as a dull roar that was swiftly getting louder. "The exam starts now!" Temari said hurriedly, running in the direction of the village with some other proctors in tow.

One girl looked close to tears, but closed ranks with her team-mates. The only thing left to show that the test had started out with thirty-six genin were the seventy-two footprints in the sand. It would be a miracle if even one team got through.

br 

"This is so unfair!" Kakashi's and Lee's teams had fought against a team from Waterfall for shelter. None of the teams from Yukigakure had remained after the written exam, too freaked out by the extreme heat of Wind Country. The genin from Konoha were huddled in a tiny cave carved by a river that had disappeared eons ago. The storm raged outside like a living thing, screaming and howling. Suzume was mutinous, pressing herself against the farthest wall from the entrance. "I mean, the Suna teams have a major lead, being used to this environment and all. How are we supposed to survive a sandstorm?"

"They have the advantage, then." Suzume shrieked and Koga and Jun growled deep in their throats as three people stood just outside the mouth of the cave in the sandstorm. A barrier of pure chakra shielded them from the worst of the sand. Asuka waggled her fingers at Megumi and the poor boy looked like he wanted to throw himself out into the storm just to get away from her.

"Get out." Haruki snarled, Koga and Momoko coming to stand at his back while Yuuta sat in a corner, getting information about the landscape from the native insects.

"Now, that's not very friendly," Katsuro Torakiba said, looking down the five inches at his shorter and younger adversary. Kazuki tapped Katsuro on the shoulder and made hand-signs. The rest of the Konoha genin were immediately on guard, but then realized that the hand-signs did not include any chakra and that they didn't recognize a single one. "Shouldn't take very long, Kazuki, hold on." Katsuro opened his arms, a placating smile on his handsome features. "We promise not to harm you in any way or steal your markers or supplies. Can we come in now? Kazuki can't hold the shield forever." The redheaded boy was starting to look a little pale.

Suzume sighed gustily. "Let them in," she told her team-mates. They gave her scandalized looks. "Oh come _on_. Haruki, was he lying?" Haruki shook his head reluctantly, having sensed no tell-tale fluctuation in chakra. "No? Good. Let them in. There's just enough room for them and it would be cruel to leave them out there. I don't know how long these storms last." Koga still snarled when Katsuro and his team-mates entered, Asuka making a bee-line straight for the helpless Uzumaki boy.

Katsuro nodded his thanks and sat back on his heels just within the shelter of the cave, Kazuki sitting down hard with a gusty sigh. He made signs with his hands again, earning a laugh from Katsuro.

"What? What did he say?" Momoko asked quickly, reddish-brown pigtails aquiver. She was rummaging through her pack for an energy bar.

"He just said that all we had to worry about now was suffocating." Katsuro explained. "With all the wind going past and not in here. We'll probably feel stuffy in the next hour or so, with so many people."

"You speak through hand-signs?" Yuuta asked the voice-less boy, his mouth hidden in the high collar of his jacket. Kazuki nodded, he clenched his fingers, his thumb over them, a bobbed it up and down.

"That means, 'yes'," Katsuro translated. "And…" there was another flurry of motion from his team-mate. "'Don't think I'm stupid because I don't talk'. C'mon, 'Zuki, you don't want them to underestimate you and get their asses kicked?" Kazuki glared, jabbing his pointer-finger at Katsuro and making a suggestive movement. "'YOU are the ass.' Then don't come to me when they don't understand you. God knows Asuka won't help."

They all seemed to just notice Asuka leaning on Megumi and talking nonstop. Megumi was looking a little green. Suzume had her Sharingan active, absorbing the hand-movements Kazuki was making.

"'Stop being disgusting'," Katsuro drawled, watching Asuka out of the corner his eye while watching his team-mate "speak". Asuka stuck her tongue out at him childishly. Katsuro shook his head and leaned against the stone side of the small cave. He started to unwrap the fighting bandages that covered his legs from the cuff of his sandals to the bottom of his knee-shorts.

br 

Soon, the other genin were copying the ninja from Kumogakure, removing outer-layers of clothing like jackets and rolling up long sleeves. A heap of jackets lay in a corner with the food packs while the owners all crowded near the mouth of the cave, forced to stop by the low ceiling.

"Will it ever stop?" Megumi said in exasperation. One had to admire his control. He sounded faintly desperate. _Anything_to get away from the red-headed chatterbox. Kazuki smiled at him and Megumi clearly read, "Better you than me" in the older boy's eyes." Megumi scowled.

"How long's it been going on?" Momoko asked, flapping her purple shirt so that it didn't stick so close to her skin.

"Five hours twenty minutes and fifty-two seconds," Yuuta answered in his quiet manner. He hadn't taken off his jacket or long pants, preferring to keep the telltale signs of being a living hive from his peers.

"So we have eighteen hours and forty minutes left," Haruki figured. He combed back his sweaty hair from his forehead. Asuka had stopped babbling, finally, too busy trying to catch her breath from the heat. She sat in a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt, laying her head against her drawn-up knees and trying not to faint.

"Anyone know how long this canyon is?" Katsuro asked. None of the genin looked too good, un-used to the heat, but the Kumogakure ninja were even more out of their element. They were used to lush black pine forests and not seeing the sun for weeks on end. In Kumo, the temperature was hardly over seventy degrees in the "summer" and stayed at about thirty degrees in the winter.

"No idea. It didn't look that long, to begin with." Momoko said, flushed. The chubby Akimichi girl sat on her heels, trying to feel some relief from the hot wind howling past.

"Even if the storm doesn't stop, we need to leave soon." Suzume pointed out. "We don't know how long the canyon is and we don't know what other kinds of things the proctors will have set up. We can pretty much assume most of the Sunagakure shinobi are making plans right now as they know the territory."

"But your forgetting something," Katsuro pointed out. "We get flash floods back home. They can change the landscape completely and you spend another month learning your way around. It's probably the same here. Sand scours away rock and entire sand-dunes change shape or disappear completely."

"He's right," Megumi spoke up suddenly, staring into the almost solid wall of screaming sand. His eyes were pearly white with his blood-limit and the veins in his temples stood out. "I can see the landmarks changing. Nothing is as it was before or as it was maybe three minutes ago."

"That's just great!" Koga growled. Jun picked up in his partner's agitation and whimpered from his spot in the cave entrance, tongue lolling and panting.

br 

It was another hour before the storm calmed down sufficiently for it to be safe to go outside. It looked like an alien world in the canyon, the few spots of shrubbery that had been trying to grow had disappeared completely.

"Well, first we should get our bearings," Suzume said, pulling on her dress. The others reluctantly put on their jackets, anything to keep their skin from burning more than it had to.

"The insects are burrowed deep in the sand," Yuuta said in his low, nearly-monotone voice. "They wish to form new homes after the storm destroyed them."

"And how would you know that?" Asuka demanded, face as cherry-red as Suzume's. "What, you _talk _to the bugs?"

"Asuka you are far more stupid than you believe yourself pretty," Katsuro snapped. "Aburame, right?" Yuuta only nodded.

"Katsuro you don't have you be mean about it," Asuka pouted prettily. She only got herself a, "No shit Sherlock" from her taller companion. Kazuki's motions were irritated as he glared at his bickering team-mates.

"'Shut up, it's too hot to argue,'" Suzume said. Kazuki jumped, staring at the girl. She shrugged at his questioning glance. "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies," she replied smoothly.

"Okay, this is where we split up." Katsuro raked his jet-black hair away from his pale forehead, his eyes the same color of the sand beneath his feet. Asuka scowled and went to stand by him, too tired to argue_too _much. Kazuki waved jauntily to the younger genin, gripping Katsuro's jacket-sleeve while Asuka hooked her arm around his waist on the Torakiba boy's other side. Perfectly in sync, they tensed and sprang high into the air… and didn't come down. They ran on empty space until they were lost in the sun's glare.

"Holy crap-in-a-hat." No one disagreed with Haruki's statement. Suzume's eyes flashed back to their normal dark green, mouth a perfect 'O' in her heart-shaped face.

"Oh my god."

"You can't just run on air, can you?" Koga demanded, the quarrelsome boy's face disbelieving. Megumi realized that his jaw was hanging open and he closed it quickly.

"My dad talked about that. Apparently, the Raikage learned it from her sensei and now it's a Torakiba family secret."

"My Sharingan can't copy it," Suzume whispered, looking scared. "Is it a blood-limit?"

"You can't copy the Hokage's Golden Flash technique, either," Momoko pointed out to her friend.

"Enough yapping! We need to get going! Look, the sun's already too close to the horizon!" it looked to be maybe six o'clock but in the desert there were still quite a few hours to go until dark. They had until the morning of the next day to complete the test. "Let's go!" Koga took off in the lead, Jun howling from his favorite spot on the Inuzuka boy's head. Suzume and Haruki took off right behind him, being the swiftest in the group while Megumi came in a close third, his shorter legs and smaller stature being the only reason he couldn't race with the best of them. Momoko, complaining loudly, brought up the rear with Yuuta silently taking in the desert.

br It was going to be a long trip, to say the least.


	8. Chapter 8: It's an ARACHNID, not a bug

Author's note: This was interesting to write. I don't like it that much, as I have a hard time remembering where to put more than three people in a fight scene. I'm sorry Yuuta's part is lame. T-T The next chapter is MUCH better, I promise!

* * *

An hour was all it took to stop their headlong dash. The Konoha genin were only slightly better-suited to the desert than the Kirigakure ninja or the ones from Amegakure. The shinobi from Kusagakure came right after the Sunagakure wannabes in ability to survive the environment, for Kusagakure was set in a dry and windy climate. 

And, of course, the Yukigakure genin had immediately spazzed and gone, leaving the three from Kumogakure in the "Least-Likely to Survive" bracket, but they didn't seem to be doing _too_badly. Asuka did look like she was ready to pass-out, though.

Suzume was as red as her dress and she conned Haruki into giving her his spare roll of fighting bandages to cover her blistering skin. It was hot that way, true, and the bandages stung abominably but it was better than getting even more seriously scalded by the sun. Koga lay on his back, Jun flopped over his stomach. They were sheltering under a rock ledge, the shade swiftly disappearing as the sun moved closer to the western horizon.

"Let's… let's move out again… at sundown," Megumi panted. He hadn't burned, truly being his father's son as he had swiftly tanned so dark that he looked like a little pottery figure. Emphasis on "little".

"I second that…" Momoko had flopped down immediately in the incredibly sparse shade. Everywhere she looked were solid rock walls stretching high into the sky and blinding sand in every direction. "We were stupid to try to move in the daylight. It's too… too…"

"Too fing hot," Yuuta muttered, uncharacteristically expressive. The others nodded wearily in agreement. Suzume took a sip from her water-gourd but made sure it was _only _a sip. Her mouth felt like a hot stove but they would have to conserve the few resources they had. Momoko, poor dear, was dreading having to use Meat Tank or any sort of Baika no Jutsu with such limited supplies.

"We haven't run into any real enemies so far," Megumi pointed out, trying to keep the moral up but failing miserably.

"Because they'll all come out at night," Haruki wiped his forehead with the back of his wrist, feeling like a piece of bacon in a frying pan. "But that's the only time to move. If we move now we'll probably all die of heat-stroke or dehydration."

They took turns keeping watch and dozing, conserving their energy but it was too hot to do anything but stare into space in a stupor.

When the sun went down the desert came alive.

"What the hell kind of place has freaking hot days and freezing-ass nights?" Koga zipped his jacket all the way to his chin and flipped up the hood. Jun barked in agreement with his barely snout peeking over the collar of his boy's jacket. The moon was starting to rise, looking giant against the horizon. Without any sort of the cloud-cover, it was bright enough to see perfectly with only the light of the full moon.

"Rather ominous, don't you think?" Momoko observed, almost having to shade her eyes to look at the night-sun. "Full moon."

"Hush, Momo. We've got enough problems as it is," Suzume hissed, not glad that the bandages on her burned arms were keeping her warm.

"Jun?" the Inuzuka boy sounded concerned, an unusual tone to hear from the normally loud and crude genin, much like his uncle. The tan puppy was whimpering, his normally perked ears flat against his head. Megumi had his Byakugan activated before the others could speak, his pearly eyes sweeping the area.

"I don't see any-" the moonlight was blocked as well as the way out of the canyon. "-thing." He finished, a little squeak in his voice.

"Shit." Koga sounded impressed.

"Double shit." Haruki said somewhat hoarsely.

A giant scorpion barred their way, its humongous tail easily surpassing the height of the canyon walls along its natural curve. A globe of liquid venom dropped from its stinger and turned the sand into glass when it hit the ground. Its claws were fully twenty feet across and fifty feet long, the rest of it simply too big to imagine. It scuttled forward, a surprisingly fast motion for such a huge arachnid. It hissed.

"Can we go around it?" that was Yuuta, his voice so quiet the five genin could hardly hear it.

"No. Too big and too fast. Can you talk to it?" Haruki asked the bug-boy. Yuuta shook his head.

"It does not speak in the way that I know. It seems to be some sort of summoning, but not like anything I've seen before."

"What do scorpions eat?" Momoko whispered. They dodged as its claws plunged into the earth where they had all stood a moment before.

"US!" Suzume shouted. "FIRE STYLE: BLAZE OF GLORY!" she put as much chakra as she dared into the jutsu, a huge ball of fire erupting from her mouth and blasting into the scorpion. It didn't phase the monster at all. Thinking that obscenities were useless, the pink-haired girl swiftly got out of the way.

"Way to go, you made it angry," Haruki said sarcastically. "Megumi! Find a weak-spot!"

"Already on it!" Megumi didn't need the hand-seals when his adrenaline was up. _Byakugan!_

The scorpion seemed to be made up of chakra, chakra, and more chakra encased with an exoskeleton that Suzume's fireball hadn't even scorched. There had to be a weak chink in the armor somewhere… "The tail! Right below the stinger!"

"Oh, yes, a more deadly place please?" Momoko's voice was shrill with fear. She didn't see her Aburame team-mate, but knew the boy was in a safe place directing his bugs for the attack.

_Thank kami for Yuuta, _Haruki thought. He could feel the scorpion's immense chakra weakening by hairs. The most chakra looked to be concentrated in the joint Megumi had pointed out. _Here goes nothing!_

"Koga, gimme a boost!" he ran over to the other genin. Koga laced his fingers into a stirrup and hurled the lighter boy into the air at the Scorpion. Haruki brought his hands up in the Jyuuken style and gathered chakra into his palms, his high speed making his eyes water. He whizzed straight through the snapping claws and ducked his head to avoid brushing the poisoned tail-tip. "GENTLE FIST!" the chakra in his hand burned the air as he slammed it through the hard exoskeleton of the scorpion's tail and felt it penetrate into flesh. He forced more chakra out but the tail thrashed suddenly, sending him flying into the cliff-face. He hit the rock with an "oof!" and fell into the sand. The arachnid rounded on him but Suzume was standing over him and sent another fireball at the monster.

"Thanks," he wheezed, getting up slowly so as not to jar ribs he was sure were broken.

"You're an idiot," was all his best friend said, looping an arm around his waist and jumping. The scorpion was making screeching sounds, pus dripping from the ugly wound in its tail. "Another hit should do!" Haruki called to Megumi. Koga and Momoko launched the smallest of their number just as they had the Hyuuga. "Jyuuken: Gentle Fist!" the tail-tip was knocking spinning through the air and the Scorpion screamed even louder, making the genin clap their hands of their ears. Small black specks rushed to the wound and the Scorpion collapsed into sand.

There was complete and utter silence. "Well, that just SUCKED," Koga said, Jun yipping in agreement.

"I second that," Haruki a hand in agreement while Yuuta unfolded himself from a crevasse he had been tucked into while he direction his Kikaichu beetles.

"The first and second ribs on your left side are broken," the Uzumaki boy observed, white eyes looking at his team-mate. Haruki flapped his hand as if waving off a cloud of midges.

"Nothing much."

"You got tossed into a freaking wall of rock, idiot," Megumi said. He had landed nimbly on his feet with only jarred ankles to show for it.

"Yeah, AFTER I nabbed Bug-zilla," Haruki snapped then winced when Suzume non-too-gently put her hand on his side. "Watch the hands, Suzume!" Her hand glowed blue for a moment, there were a few muted cracks, and then she released her friend.

"All better," she announced.

"Where'd you learn that?" Haruki gently pressed his hands against the newly-healed bones. Suzume looked even more flushed from using so much chakra.

"Sharingan; dobe." (Author: I swear, it's genetic. O-O) She brushed the sand off of her knees and smiled brightly at them, motioning past the hill of sand that had been the scorpion. "Shall we?"


	9. Chapter 9: I really, REALLY hate you

Author's note: This is my FAVORITE chapter so far. The last chapter in the queue, as well. I need to get typing! o-O. I've been drawing mostly. If you want to check out my artwork go to me homepage. It's a deviantart address and my username is "lunecramoisie". I have a very crappy doujinshi up. - Sorry.

I was nearly laughing out loud writing this. It was so much fun. XD I had to come up with the most silly-sounding yet slightly cute idea for a grudge. "You made me drop my cupcake! -starts crying-" I can relate, poor baby. Also, Asuka is a bit of a crybaby but I like her anyway in a sort of round-about way. Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

"This is _so _your freaking fault, Asuka," Katsuro snarled low in his throat, a murderous sound.

"It's not!" Asuka cried shrilly, hands crossed over her chest. She looked and sounded as if she were about to cry. "I didn't see you cloud-walking."

"Because there is a less than zero percent humidity in the air AND there are no sand particles still floating about! DO YOU SEE ANY CLOUDS?" he bellowed. He would strangle the insufferable female if he could, but his hands were trapped. So were his legs and hips and everything below his elbows. "I really hate you right now."

Kazuki, about five feet away, signed, "_I really hate you too_." Then Asuka burst into tears, bewailing their fate of being waist-deep in quicksand.

"UWAAAAAH! IT'S NOT MY FAAA-AA-ULT!" she sobbed, tears running down her face. The moon was high and so was the sand.

"Just shut up, Asuka, and maybe we can get out of here," Katsuro said through gritted teeth.

"_Blow the whistle?_" Kazuki offered, using only one hand to sign, so great was his speed.

"Can't. My pack went under. Yours too?" Kazuki nodded grimly, a vein twitching in his jaw as his sister continued to have the hysterics. "Asuka, what about your pack? Don't blow the whistle yet, but do you know where it is?" Asuka didn't stop crying as she pointed to about three yards from where they were. The last strap of a pack disappearing into the sand was all that was visible. "Oh-" Katsuro swore.

"_So even if we want to save our sorry asses by blowing the whistle for help and trying again next time, we can't._" Kazuki's movements were twitchy and he had a funny, slightly panicked look on his face, his light dusting of freckles standing out against his suddenly paper-white face.

"Uhh… yeah." The mute boy clapped his hand to his forehead with a silent groan. His body language was easy to read. _We are so fing dead._

_Okay. We've been here for three hours. I'm up to my chest. _Katsuro had tried blasting his way out with raw chakra but it only seemed to activate a sort of leeching effect and he soon stopped. _So… that's about one and half feet per hour. I have another half hour before I can no longer breathe. Comforting thought, that. Might as well bite through my tongue and drown in my own blood before then._

Asuka had subsided into broken-hearted sniffles, her arms behind her head as she tried to keep them out of the sand. Kazuki did the same thing, desperate to keep his only mode of communication safe. "Umm… Katsuro, remember that time when we were six?" Asuka said suddenly.

"Asuka, I'm having trouble remembering yesterday at the moment," he retorted brusquely, going through escape ideas with increasing desperation.

"The time when we got cupcakes in academy because we were celebrating your mom's first year as Raikage?" The Torakiba boy remembered it only vaguely.

"Yeah? So?"

"_Oh shit._" Kazuki signed.

"I was the one that bumped into you and made your drop your cupcake."

Years of having the incident bother him boiled to the surface. "_You?_" he sputtered, face reddening besides its sunburn. "That was YOU? I've been hating the stupid Korigawa kid for years because of that!"

"I'm soooooooorrrrrreeeeeee!" Asuka keened, almost bursting out into more tears. "I'm sooooo sooorrrreeeeee!"

"You realize that was the last cupcake I almost ever had?" Katsuro demanded, insulted beyond words.

"_You don't even _like_ cake._" Kazuki signed sternly, scowling at his friend.

"Shut up, Kazuki."

"And I dared Izumi into putting La Yu in your onigiri when we were nine," she said, all in rush as if she were determined to get all of her guilt off of her chest.

"If we live through this, you are SO dead."

"_Izumi was only six, Nee-chan._" Kazuki said flatly, unimpressed beyond words with his twin.

Asuka alternately confessed and keened so piercingly that Katsuro's overly-sensitive ears were ringing before too long. "ASUKA! SHUT THE HELL UP!" he finally roared, pushed beyond all endurance as his chin touched the dreaded sand.

"You don't talk to a lady that way!" a sharp voice said. _An angel?_ He thought feverishly, then remembered that he had never heard of angels with pink hair and that he didn't believe in a god or any sort anyway.

"Oh, please no." he moaned. "Not you." Suzume winked cheerily at him.

"Sorry, cat-boy. Looks like you're in a bit of a fix." Kazuki looked acutely miserable as he was even more silent than usual. Asuka walked over the crest of the sand-dune.

"Watch out!" Asuka screamed. "You'll go un-" Suzume stopped right by her head. "-der. Oh."

"Academy ninjas fall for this, Torakiba." Megumi and Haruki were right after their team-mate, the other Konoha team staying well away from the sand as they did not have the chakra skill to walk over it.

"I'm all for leaving this one here," Haruki growled, glaring down at Katsuro who glared right back. Kazuki mouthed something obscene and tried to catch someone's eye for help. Megumi pulled the taller and older boy out, using chakra for traction and stability.

"_You have excellent timing," _Kazuki signed to Suzume, his shoulders slumped with weariness. "_There was a chakra lecher in the sand. You might want to be quick about getting off of it." _Together, they pulled a hiccupping Asuka out of the sand while Haruki and Katsuro still attempted to stare each other down.

"Well?" Katsuro demanded, black hair flecked with sand. "Are you going to get me out of here?" Haruki pretended to think about it.

"Only if you say 'please'," he said finally. Katsuro's face turned beet-red with suppressed rage.

"If you don't I'll probably daaaaaagh…" he trailed off as his mouth went under.

"Haruki! Help him!" Suzume called sharply from the safe place on the sand.

_I am going to so fing kill you._ Katsuro said with his eyes, fixed on Haruki. "Fine. You're so dramatic…" he hauled out the older boy. Katsuro started to sink again as he tried to force chakra beneath his feet. He cursed; his gait an odd skip-hop off of the quicksand and his knees buckled once he got to solid ground. He rubbed feeling back into his legs, his team-mates doing the same. They were all covered in sand.

Kazuki touched his hand to his heart and bowed his head in the direction of Kakashi's team. "No need to thank us," Suzume waved him off. "Koga heard you."

"Girl, are you part demon?" Koga asked Asuka, rubbing his ears while Jun tried to bury his head in the sand. "I've never heard anyone go that high."

"It's all in the nose," the pert redhead answered, tapping her own narrow facial center-piece. "Get those nasal tones going and people can hear you for miles. Right, Katsuro?"

"You're dead." He snapped.

"Why?" she seemed genuinely curious.

"Cupcake."

She blanched. "But you don't even _like-_"

"Shut up!" Katsuro cried, clapping his sandy hands over his ears. "I don't want to hear it!"

"I said I was sor-"

"Can we get going?" Haruki was impatient, scuffing his feet in the sand while he kept his hands shoved deep into his pockets. "We don't have much time left and kami only knows what else we'll face."

"I'm for that," Momoko piped up, looking around shiftily as if she expected the sand to rise up and attack them. The walls of the canyon seemed to be closing in on them.

"We can't just leave them behind!" Suzume cried, planting her hands on her hips. Haruki and Megumi, recognizing the signs, flinched and took a few steps back.

"Thanks, but we're not your charity case," Katsuro said, somewhat rudely. Suzume grabbed him by the ear and he yelped.

"We just saved your sorry asses! A little gratitude would be nice!"

"Asuka… Kazuki…!"

Asuka giggled and Kazuki made a flicking motion off of his shoulders. "_Not my responsibility._"

"Ari…gatou…gozaimasu!" Katsuro wheezed, never realizing how much it hurt to have one's ear gripped mercilessly by a fearsome female. Asuka was usually a big push-over and his mother and Izumi… let's just not talk about his mother and Izumi. They would do far more complicated, more painful things.

"Promise not to harm us in any way or to try and take our markers?" Yuuta caught on quickly, his bespectacled eyes fixed on the Torakiba.

"Promise!"

"Promise," Asuka said. Kazuki made a gesture with his hand like a nodding head. They all looked at Haruki. He scowled.

"No lying," he spat.

"You help us get through the exam and we won't take your markers, kapeesh? You've got more experience than we do BUT, here's the thing, _you hardly have any chakra left!_"

"What? Yes we do!" Asuka piped up, indignantly looking at the pink-haired girl that had her fingers wrapped around her team-mate's ear.

"_You wouldn't notice. You don't have much chakra to begin with. Katsuro's the powerhouse."_ Kazuki told his sister.

"Shut up!" she snapped.

"We help each other to help ourselves," Megumi stated. "Agreed?" Kazuki and Asuka exchanged looks, as well as Momoko and Koga and the other Konoha ninjas.

Katsuro winced and sighed. "Agreed."


	10. Shut up, Kazuki

Author's note: I hope you love me. I update a lot. This story isn't the greatest, I'm so sorry, but it just flows so EASILY... I've got over 37 pages and I'm still typing strong. I don't own the Naruto universe. And I saw Kushina, too. SHE LOOKS LIKE ORIHIME WTH.

* * *

"There!" Katsuro had amazing night-sight. His pupils nearly filled his pale irises as they took in as much light as possible and reflected it back on the world. There was a blue flag that waved in a very slight breeze. The sun was on its way to rising, the air almost imperceptibly growing warmer. 

"I don't see it," Momoko said doubtfully, breathing in short puffs. Amazingly, they hadn't encountered any other teams.

"I can," Megumi said, a bit unnecessarily as he stared into the dark.

"Oh, yes, why don't we all 'Byakugan' and have x-ray vision?" Suzume's temper had not improved. If anything, it had deteriorated drastically in the last two hours with Haruki and Katsuro constantly bickering. Everyone immediately recognized the tone in her voice and grew silent, Koga's nursing the bump on his head from disagreeing with her earlier.

"Any more sandpits?" the Inuzuka boy sneered at Asuka. She pouted, crossing her sunburned arms over her chest.

"Oh just cram it."

"Other teams wait in ambush," Yuuta said suddenly, standing stock-still as he listened intently to a wasp that had landed on the frame of his sunglasses. "One from Rain, Grass, and two from Suna. We should be able to get past the Rain and Grass teams, and maybe one of the Suna teams, but not both."

"So either way we're going to be totally screwed over my people who know the terrain and have a definite advantage," Haruki said flatly, throwing his arms into the air. "Oh goodie!"

"You have amazing chakra control," Suzume observed, taking in the technique with her Sharingan. They all clustered together, Kazuki leading the way, a shield of chakra making them look like dust devils.

"_Thank you,"_ he signed. "_It is so rare to find someone who appreciates my skills._"

"Shut up, Kazuki."

"_My point is proven._"

"Did they really think we would fall for that?" Momoko whispered and pointed up at the very top of the sides of the canyon. Small dark shapes leaned over to stare intently at the sandy gorge bottom.

"I swear the rain washes all sense out of their brains," Koga said in disdain, Jun making a weird growling noise like a chuckle. They continued on their way for another hour, Suzume taking over with the illusion when Kazuki couldn't keep it up anymore.

"Approaching the second San team…" Yuuta said quietly, his voice nearly lost over the dry breezes that swept over the desert. A hand shot out of the sand to grab Asuka's ankle. She screamed. "Approached."

The sand exploded under their feet, shattering the illusion and revealing three very dusty Sand genin. The three looked to be about sixteen. "Thanks for coming by to play," one giggled obscenely.

"Formation Leo!" Megumi cried hoarsely, grabbing chakra and barreling forward into the center Suna ninja. The Konoha genin spread out, each a point in the lion constellation with Megumi at the apex. The Kumo genin dashed out of the way, Katsuro and Kazuki pretty much drained of chakra and Asuka, quite frankly, rather useless at the moment being beet-red and dehydrated.

The middle Sand ninja hesitated, not prepared for a full-on attack. She took the attack in her arm and threw Haruki over her hip. She smirked as he spat out sand and started to form hand-seals but paused. She pulled up her sleeve, small bruised circles showing over certain nerves. "WHAT DID YOU DO YOU LITTLE FREAK?" she screeched, pulling out explosive tags and going after him.

The other two had zeroed in on Momoko, guessing her to be the weakest links. When they got within three feet of her she made a hand-sign. "Baika no jutsu!" she expanded at about sixty miles an hour, the two Sunagakure genin hitting at high velocity and keeling over with bloody noises and broken teeth.

"I beg your pardon," Megumi had darted under a ledge, having not realized before how tired he was and just how strong the enemy kunoichi was. A hand grabbed him by the back of the shirt and yanked him up onto the ledge. His rescuer, Katsuro, lashed out as he traded places with Megumi, his leg a blur as he aimed for a sensitive nerve in the kunoichi's neck. She snarled and blocked, recognizing chakra exhaustion in her opponent. She smirked at him.

"Something wrong?" she purred sweetly, making the sign of the tiger. Katsuro cursed, feeling his system over-heating. He'd had little to no rest just like the others, and the extremes of day and night temperatures were wreaking havoc on his body.

"Nothing's wrong, sweetheart," he said through gritted teeth, sweat dripping down his face. "In fact…. Everything is just… damn… _right._" He scrounged up his last little bit of chakra, fangs digging into his bottom lips and his ears growing larger and more pointed. She shrieked and broke away, shooting some sort of fire jutsu at him. He side-stepped easily, his reaction-time, already superb, jacked up with his blood-limit.

His inhumanly keen eyes picked out her shape as the sun started to creep into the sky. She created clones and, faster than the eye could follow, they each had a strip of red cloth in their hands and disappeared into the sand, taking her two team-mates with them. "Round two," Katsuro muttered, rolling his neck around and hearing the satisfying crack of crunching vertebrae.

Koga swore as he felt the slightest tug and his red marker disappeared. So too did the markers of the others. "Okay, evaluation," Suzume said, clapping her hands together. "We're up again three Sunagakure genin who are older and have more experience than us. This is their environment and they know the land. We're exhausted, tired, hungry, dehydrated, and just not made for this biome. Have I left anything out?"

"We have three blood-limits at our disposal and techniques from two different villages," Megumi said, shedding his jacket and tying it around his waist. He slid into a defensive Taijutsu stance. "But they've got our markers and until we get them back, we're permanently screwed."

"All for kicking their asses?" Jun jumped out of Koga's jacket and sniffed the air, growling. Small dips in the sand appeared around Yuuta as he stood there.

"Lion ants," he said by explanation, seeing Asuka's worried looks at the little pits.

Kazuki cracked his knuckles and drew out some exceptionally wicked-looking kunai from the inside pocket of his jacket. Asuka was looking a little faint, but holding up and took out a small-linked length of chain "At least metal doesn't rust when it's so dry." She said, wrapped it around a fist and leaving a bit to hang down and swing.

"Beneath you!" Haruki shouted to Katsuro, but the boy was already air-borne and spinning over the clone's head while Koga and Jun tore through it. The Inuzuka extracted a ragged strip of red cloth from between Jun's fangs.

"Got one marker," he called aloud. There was the crackle of knuckles and joints being shaken into more fight-ready positions.

"Bring it on."

* * *

Author's note: XD YAY! Tough boy talk. I've never really written the Torakiba blood limit in detail before. I don't want to focus too much on individual characters just yet. As you have probably guessed, Yuuta, Momoko, Asuka, Kazuki, and Koga are kind of side characters. Megumi will have his time, and so will the rest of Kakashi's team and Katsuro, being the tres awesome children of powerful people. Also, Koga is just Kiba's nephew. I thought it would be rather funny with Kiba being "Uncle Kiba". But his awesome name shall live on in "Torakiba" because, I mean, who DOESN'T want to have the name "Tiger Claw"? -pose of youth- 

I love these guys, truly. It will be more about Suzume and Haruki later on. Right now they are more team-mates and Haruki's too busy being emo and kicking ass to pay attention to a certain pretty Uchiha girl. Enough talk, now. Until next time!

I love how they tell Kazuki to shut up. X3


	11. Of Ears and Weeds

One minute, Momoko was standing at the ready, hand-signs ready to be released, when she went under with a piercing scream. One of the Sand ninjas that had done a face-plant into her person when she had suddenly expanded rose from the ground, a kunai at the plump girl's throat. "Move and she dies!" he spat through broken teeth. Everyone froze, weapons motionless in their hands, but Katsuro was a blur. He moved so fast, his torso bending and then all of a sudden he was in the Sunagakure genin's face, grinning at him.

"Oyasuminasai!" he trilled, clawed fist plunging into his stomach. He fell into Katsuro with a ragged gasp as he struggled to breathe. Momoko leapt away from him as if burned, massaging the angry red line on her throat that the kunai had left.

"Katsuro! Capture, don't kill," Asuka said sharply, hands tightening on the train she swung.

"Pleeeeaaase?" Katsuro whined, keeping a firm grip on the enemy's throat.

"You're nearly out of chakra. You're going to do yourself a serious injury if you don't just let him go now," the redhead said patiently. "We'll tie him up. Oh, look, you're tired. Take a nap, will ya?" Katsuro's grip slackened and his knees buckled without his permission. His captive took that chance to try and escape, but Katsuro fell on top of him and managed to keep him in place by sitting on him.

"We've got your little pal," Haruki shouted, looking around for the enemy. "Come out, come out, wherever you are." Koga sniffed the air, Jun doing the same.

"I can't smell them," he growled, frustrated. Jun whined and scrabbled at the sand with his paws. Katsuro sighed in disgust and disarmed his captive, much to the Sunagakure's ninja's protests.

"Okay, here's how it's gonna be," he dragged the other boy's head back by his hair, baring his throat. Katsuro pressed the kunai to his throat, drawing a thin line of crimson. The boy snarled obscene threats at him but the Torakiba ignored him. His keen eyes were changing to adjust the rising sun, not halfway above the horizon. "We've got your little pal here. We can make him a lot littler by carving him up into pieces if you don't give us back our markers_right now._" There was utter silence.

"Katsuro-san, that's going to fa-" Yuuta started to say, eyebrows furrowed but Asuka silenced him.

"He knows what he's doing," she hissed so only he could hear. "Believe me, he knows." Yuuta sighed and shrugged, signaling to his bugs. Small pits grew all around Katsuro and the prisoner and a number of insects settled on the Sunanin. He screamed and struggled but only succeeded into forcing his neck onto the blade and he stilled, feeling the blood wetting his own blade.

"Oh, well wasn't _that _unfortunate," Katsuro said with mock regret. He was even paler now; his skin pasty and damp with sweat and dark circles under his eyes making him look rather desperate. "I will count to three and then… let's see… he doesn't need _both _ears, does he?" a second kunai appeared in his hand.

"Don't listen to him!" cried the Sunanin. "Just beat the crap outta these bastaaaaarghs…" he gargled into silence when Katsuro pressed a sensitive nerve.

"I'm waiting…" The Torakiba said in a sing-song voice, the air about him of a cat cruelly playing with his prey before he devours it. "Three… two…"

"Okay! Okay, okay, here." The Suna girl popped out of the sand, hands held palm-up to she was unarmed and the strips of red cloth in one hand. "Just let him up nice and easy and-" She stepped on one of the pits and screeched and multitudes of angry fire-colored ants poured out of the ground to swarm up her legs and immobilize her.

Kazuki swiftly paced forward and, with one of his unusual kunai, sliced off her ear. Suzume and Momoko uttered horrified gasps but the girl just burst into smoke. "_That was a very, very bad move._" Kazuki said frostily.

"Fine." Katsuro nicked his prey's ear lightly, drawing blood. "We're waiting ever so patiently for more of your tricks."

"Are you really going to take his ear?" Haruki asked. He wouldn't actually be surprised, he just wondered about how hard it would be to get a mixture of blood and sand to wash out of his clothes.

"You really don't want to know the answer to that," Asuka muttered, flicking her long ponytail over one shoulder.

"Look…" Katsuro untied the Sunanin's marker and held it aloft, waving the bright bit of fabric in the air. "We won't destroy this if you give ours back. I know what you're thinking. You have eight markers and we have two. But did you notice that each of these little bits of cloth are specially keyed to the first person they touched? The chuunin handing them out wore gloves. It's a complicated bit of work, I admit, but clever. You can't steal the markers of others I you lose your own."

"Oh wow…" Suzume scrounged up a tiny bit of chakra, using her Sharingan to examine the unremarkable little red banner. "He's right."

"Bastard." It was the other male Sunagakure genin who had had his face broken by Momoko. He threw the markers down at the edge of their group. Sand mites disappeared into the sand with them and reappeared next to Suzume.

"Take them. You can tell if they are real." Yuuta said quietly, looking with affection upon the insects. Suzume, not easily squeamish, picked the red cloths up and immediately confirmed their being genuine.

Katsuro let his captive up and the boy immediately lashed out, his fist connecting solidly with Katsuro's face. Asuka screamed, running forwards. The others were appalled at the poor sportsmanship.

"Oh my god, that wasn't fair! You are _so-_" Haruki started to walk forward.

"Hyuuga, shut up!" Katsuro gasped, hands clasped to his face. Blood ran through his fingers. "It's fair. Akimichi broke their faces they break mine." The Sand ninjas ran off and disappeared into the cliffs.

"Here, let me see." Suzume knelt before Katsuro and ignored him as he tried to wave her off.

"It's a head-wound. They bleed a lot. I'm better already, see?" she pried his hands away and glared at him. His nose was bent to the side and blood streamed from his mouth and nostrils.

"Really? Where's the better?" Momoko asked, looking sick.

"Damn." Koga sounded impressed, leaning in to get a better view. "You look like shit, Torakiba."

"Thanks ever so."

"We're almost to the finish line," Suzume said, jerking her head over her shoulder in the direction of the blue flag highlighted by the sun now fully above the horizon. It was about five o'clock in the morning. "We can get medical assistance. I don't trust Haruki's rubs to stay fully healed as he has _put so much stress on them._" She glared at her friend and he stuck his tongue out at her. "Your nose will probably stay crooked unless you-" Katsuro molded the crushed cartilage of his nose back into its original shape with a sudden flow of blood that then slackened off. "-fix your nose but it hurts like hell. You need to stop self-mutilating yourself."

"It's not self-mutilation!" Katsuro demanded hotly, getting shakily to his feet and wiping his gory face off on his sleeve.

"_That's right. It's called vanity._" Kazuki piped up, grinning at his friend. Katsuro was not amused.

"Shut up, Kazuki."

"So… shall we?" they look at Yuuta, standing closest to the blue flagpole just thirty yards away. Asuka linked her arms through Katsuro's and Kazuki's, tugging them along.

"Last one there has to do their laundry of a month!"

* * *

"That's mah boy!" Naruto crowed, pounding his fist on the table. "THAT'S MAH BOY!!!" Kankurou flicked a few coins across the table at the Hokage.

"You win." He growled. Naruto cackled and counted them. A number of jounin including the three present Kage had congregated for drinks and nail-biting and watching the life video footage.

"He hit him! THE LITTLE BRAT SOMEHOW LAID A HAND ON MY STUDENT." Takumi, the Kumogakure jounin, kept repeating in disbelief. Temari scowled and swirled the cold dregs of tea round and around in her cup.

"That girl was good, Gaara-san." Kurai lounged in her hard-backed chair as if it were a throne, elbows propped on the back. She nodded respectfully to the Kazekage, sitting at the head of the long table. "Fast, saucy, bit of a bitch… made my boy blink. Too bad more kunoichi don't make it to chuunin, and hardly any to jounin."

"I'm sorry, _I'll _have to take credit, Raikage-sama." Temari smirked and laced her fingers together, resting her chin on them. "But I _do_resent you calling my student a bitch."

"Well I_beg_ your pardon," Kurai smirked right back, mimicking Temari's posture. "I should have none, from one bitch to another." They glared daggers at each other. A few jounin, including the Puppet User, ducked out of the line of fire as the two continued to bicker, all smiles and sheathed claws. Kurai would be accused of many things, but diplomacy to an old rival would never be one of them.

"My youthful student has such devious tricks up her sleeve!" Lee cried, an arm over his eyes. "To expand so beautifully at the perfect moment… THE YOUTH!!!"

"Hey… what's that?" Kakashi, at the end of the table closest to the viewing screen, leaned in closer, lone brow furrowed as he squinted.

"Kakashi-sensei?" everyone clustered closer.

"What is it?" Gaara asked quietly, searching the screen.

"It's probably just a blip, but I could have sworn there was a weird fuzzy patch."

"Could've been a tumbleweed," The Raikage scoffed, flicking her dark over one shoulder and examining her fingernails.

"Can we get someone to rewind? It went by the flag."

Takumi complied, being pretty technically minded. "'Bout how far, Kakashi?"

"I'll tell you…. Stop. There." The Copy-Cat Ninja tapped on the huge screen at a spot in the left bottom corner, right above where the time was shown in the military standard time.

"It _is_a tumbleweed." Kurai looked surprised as she hung from the ceiling to get a better look. "I was joking about that. Do you even get tumbleweeds around here?"

"No. We don't." the Kazekage's voice was tight. "It could be nothing, it could be a lot of things."

"Could've been blown in during the sandstorm," a Suna jounin offered with a shrug. "The storm came all the way from the southern edge of Wind Country. It could've blown in a lot of things."

"What's so worrisome about a tumbleweed?" a grumpy jounin from Amegakure demanded. "It's a dead bushy plant that blows around. I can't see much harm in _that_."

"Guess we'll find out," Naruto sighed, running fingers through his spiky hair. "I guess there's no such thing as an 'easy to manage' event. Something _always _has to give us a scare."

"Then it wouldn't be an event," Kakashi chuckled grimly, resuming his bright orange book.

"You know, no one needs to _know _that you read that…" The Raikage said, twisting up her hair in a bun with a pencil and donning her hat.

"Indeed, Kakashi-san, it is most shameful!" Lee expostulated. The elder jounin sighed and turned a page.

"Leave an old man his hobbies, why don't you." Kakashi was only ever "old" when it suited him.

"If you're so old why don't you retire, Old Man?" The Hokage couldn't resist teasing his former sensei.

"They get more impertinent as they age," Kakashi muttered wearily as the Kages departed to greet the surviving genin. "Over thirty and still poking fun at poor little old me."

* * *

Author's note: Don't worry Kakashi-sensei, we still love you! Haha. Tumbleweeds of DOOM. I was wondering what would be so doom-ful as I was typing this and then it came to me: TUMBLEWEED! Don't ask. You shall see what results of the tumbleweed…. And I don't really see the Kages being very different from when they were young. Do you know anybody who didn't stay at least a little bit of the same as they grew older? I was a bossy, impertinent little thing when I was seven and still am nearly eight years later. 


	12. Chapter 12: Pantsu?

"Oh for the love of kami, HOLD STILL!"

"Crazy woman, don't touch me!" feathers flew out of the door of the room. A dark-haired woman about to peek in jerked her head back as the pillowcase soon followed.

"I'm trying to fix your nose!"

"It's fixed already!"

"If you don't hold still, kami as my witness, it will heal crooked and you will have an ugly honker for the rest of your life." There was a grumble and the sounds of violence went away. About ten minutes later, a harried-looking medic ninja left the room to attend to another patient. The dark-haired woman, waiting patiently, oozed around the door and leaned against the frame.

"You did good, boy." The boy sitting on the hospital bed, carefully prodding his nose, looked up quickly. He didn't recognize the woman for a moment, until her appearance rippled to reveal the Raikage.

"Mom!" Katsuro said in surprise, jerking up. "How'd you get in here without a retinue?"

"Oh child of mine, once get my experience, little is impossible!" his mother replied airily, waving her hand in the air as if she were wafting away the idea of "impossible".

Suddenly, she smiled. A true, genuine smile of a mother looking with pride upon her only offspring. She smoothed back his hair from his forehead, much to his annoyance. "You used some pretty cool moves out there. But I'm sure _I _never taught you anything so flashy as a spinning kick." Katsuro smiled crookedly up at her, their expressions identical.

"Didn't have much energy left to do anything too ninja-ish, mom," he admitted. "Also…" he didn't want to say his weaknesses aloud. But Kurai understood.

"Too damn hot and dry here, hn? So true. Hey, you look like an elephant chewed you up and spit you out. You should get some rest." Katsuro protested hotly. "Listen up, sweet. You've used a lot of chakra on little fuel and gotten your face broken. We're not used to this environment. I'm going to bed early myself."

Katsuro grumbled, but if anyone could make him heel, it was his mother. "How're Kazuki and Asuka?"

"They're fine. Get some rest. Matches, tomorrow, and I expect you to kick some ass."

The medic ninja who had attended to Haruki scuttled out of his hospital room, looking scandalized. The occupants were roaring with laughter at a joke told by a pretty blond woman with high pig-tails.

"And then, if you don't believe _that_," she hiccupped, wiping tears of merriment from her blue eyes. "Let me tell you what the _other _guy said-"

"Naruko-chan, are you telling obscene jokes again?" the dark-haired woman asked, lips pursed in mock reproach.

"Course not, Torakiba-sama. Why would you think that?" Suzume said innocently, perched on the end of Haruki's bed. The woman scowled.

"You see through illusions far too quickly for my taste, girlie."

"Not Uzumaki-sama's," the pink-haired girl corrected, pointing at the busty blonde woman. "His are good."

"And you don't find it at all disturbing that you can't make a decent henge of your own gender?" Kurai demanded of the blonde woman. The Hokage-in-disguise shrugged. "Do _you_ find it disturbing?" Kurai asked Megumi. He shrugged, still grinning.

"I think it's kind of funny," he said frankly. "But mom's prettier," he told his father. The blonde woman popped out of existence, leaving a blond man with spiky hair with whisker-marks on his cheeks.

"Just as it should be."

"Visiting hours are over. Wanna grab some ramen? The people here make the beef flavor right."

"I have training…" Suzume said regretfully. "And I don't think I can hold chopsticks with these things on my hand." She was swathed head to toe in bandages treated with a burn ointment. She looked like a pink-haired mummy. There was a flash.

"One for the photo-album," Megumi told her, fox-like grin on his face. "We can show everyone at home how you look like a mummy."

"Get back here to little jerk!" Suzume chased after him, Megumi cackling wickedly as they sped out of the hospital.

"I have to stay," Haruki grumbled. "Apparently, Suzume did a kind of not-really-healing healing. Waste of chakra."

"You won't want ANYTHING broken AT ALL. Matches are hell." Kurai responded sagely.

"Remember I was the one that put that funny scar on your arm?" Naruto reminisced fondly, using his transformation jutsu once again.

"And I was the one that beat you to a bloody pulp? Yeah. Good times, good times. Anyway, good night, Haruki-kun. Brilliant Jyuuken, by the way." Kurai flicked off the lights as she and the blonde woman left.

Haruki leaned back against his pillows, satisfied about how the day had gone. _Just think, I'll be a chuunin soon enough! I'll get through the matches tomorrow, you bet your life on it._

* * *

"So… you buying?"

"Do I ever?"

"Of course not. What a silly question. Can you drop the henge or use a different one? You're really starting to scare me."

They sat in the glow of light cast by the ramen shop. It was more of a restaurant, really, having three walls, tables, and a roof, and the only stools were at the counter. "So whoever's stupid enough to get left behind pays?" Naruto, thinking that finally, _finally,_he would be able to best the Torakiba in sneakiness, agreed.

"Sure. Hope you brought cash."

"If I were old-fashioned I would make you pay."

"But you're not. So you're paying, believe it."

The chef ignored the strange banter between his two customers, a curvy blonde and a slim brunette. He didn't recognize them, so assumed them to be among the riffraff that came to watch the exams. But they were awful pretty to be considered riffraff…. "Hoi! Keep those eyes on the ramen!" the blonde wrapped her knuckles sharply against the counter. "Or I will kunai your ass from here to Water Country."

"You're scaring the natives," the brunette said, but she snickered. The blonde stuck her tongue out at her companion. "I thought you'd understand, being a pervert yourself."

"Just cram it, Kurai." The blonde's annoyance was quickly forgotten when a steaming bowl was shoved under her nose. "ITADAKIMASU!" the beef bowl didn't stand a chance.

The brunette took a hearty slurp, being a great connoisseur of all things that included red meat. After about too bights she slid it over to the enthusiastic blonde, propping her chin on one hand. "K'raaa?" her companion said around a huge bite of noodles. She swallowed and wiped her mouth with a napkin and tried again. "Hey, cat-bitch! Whatsamatta?"

Kurai didn't answer at first, tracing the grain of the wooden counter with her chopsticks. At last, she said, "Do you think they'll be all right?"

"Who?"

"Our kids. The wannabes in general. I'm thinking too much about our chuunin exams, I know it." The blonde looked concerned.

"We came out okay."

"But people _died_…"

"Kurai! People die all the time. You can't always save them. I thought you knew that."

"And I thought you hated it."

The blonde frowned. "What's got your pantsu in such a glorious bunch?" the brunette shoved her off of the stool with a foot.

"My pantsu, my business. It's just… they're our kids, Naruto. My_son _could be dropped in the horrific mess of over twenty years ago."

"Don't say it like that," Naruto whined, rubbing his form's bruised bottom. "You're making me feel old."

"You_are_ old, Naruto."

"No I'm not."

"For a ninja."

"Oh, well then, thank you."

When she saw that her old friend wasn't going to drop it, she patted her shoulder. "Don't worry about it so much. Katsuro's your kid. I can't really think of much that could really hurt him with your freaky-assed blood-limit."

"Thanks ever so."

"Also, if he's anything like you, he'll be sending those little brats running for cover. I remember you scaring Koga when you nearly exploded that time." Kurai turned red.

"Well I didn't mean for that to happen! If you've forgotten, my own twin was _leeching away my power_-"

"And I'm kinda worried about my kid and Haruki and Suzume and all the genin in the exams. Three have already disappeared in the desert with no sign of them, I hear. A team from Kirigakure." Kurai grimaced.

"A highly unpleasant death, to be sure. Kirigakure can't afford to lose ninjas. They're only just getting back on their feet."

"I know. But I think having a sandstorm was both mean and effective." Kurai grinned.

"Wish we'd had one of those, compared to what we had to deal with."

"Believe it."

* * *

Author's note: I recently learned what "pantsu" were. X3 Ehehehe… the little pervert in me couldn't resist. You know, "what's got your panties in a wad"? It's funny.Until next time, lovelies. 


	13. Gone

Okay, he wouldn't be proud to admit it, but he was extremely tired. Therefore, he was extremely asleep and dead to the world. That was not a good state for a ninja, especially a Torakiba. He slept deep and without dreams, a blessing compared to the waking nightmares to come as the small window slid open silently and a figure hopped through.

* * *

Megumi snored like a bloated dragon, Suzume had long since grown able to ignore his and her brother's nightly serenades. She had her long hair out in a pink halo around her head. She was curled up in a ball, eyebrows knitted as something troubled her sleep. A hand clamped over her mouth and she was instantly awake, lashing out but a sharp pain on her shoulder-blade distracted her. Starbursts exploded behind her eyes and she was out, caught and then slung unceremoniously over a shoulder and stolen out into the night.

* * *

There was a horrified scream the next morning at around six. A medic ninja going to check on her patients dropped her trey of medications and staggered against the doorframe, a hand to her mouth. "Oh my heart… AIKA! GET THE KAZEKAGE!"

"Dang it, Harumi, do you have any idea what time it is? These kids need rest and-" the medic ninja stopped beside her colleague, surveying the blood spattered over the curtains and the mangled carcass on the formerly clean white tile. "I'll get him." She squeaked, and ran for all she was worth.

* * *

The first thing Haruki thought was that it was awfully noisy for what felt like very early in the morning. He groaned and turned over, pressing his pillow over his ear. How strange. His sheets weren't white. They blue, and they smelled like the nice fabric softener the maids used…. He sat bolt upright, reaching for his kunai pouch. It took him a moment to recognize his surroundings. He was in the hospital at Sunagakure, okay, heart-attack now over.

The door slammed open and he snatched his sheets to his chest instinctively, even though he wore his pajamas. It was that girl Asuka, her green eyes huge in her blotchy red hair and her hair hung lank. She looked like she had gotten very little sleep. She wore only an over-large tee-shit and a pair of shorts. She was barefoot. "He's not here?" she whispered. She shouted down the hall. "KAZUKI HE'S NOT HERE EITHER!"

"Haruki-kun? Oh thank kami you're here." The Hokage poked his head around the door. Asuka squeaked and ran off, calling for her team-mate.

"Ano… Hokage-sama? What's going on?" he was beginning to feel uneasy. He'd never seen that expression on his leader's face before. It scared him to see the man he had always thought of as indestructible look so stricken.

"Megumi's gone. So's Suzume-chan and Katsuro Torakiba." The bottom dropped out of Haruki's stomach. What was he doing in bed when his friends were missing?

"I'll help you look! They can't have gone far-"

"No." that tone brooked no arguments. "_Stay here._ Under no circumstances are you to leave this room, do you hear me? They could want you too. It's like seven years ago all again…" the Hokage was gone and chills raced up Haruki's spine. He was sure the "seven years ago" was the night when he was nearly kidnapped, along with Suzume. What had saved him was that he hadn't had the Byakugan.

_If it's them again…_ he thought, dressing quickly. _Hey didn't take me because Megumi has the Byakugan! Torakiba's got his blood limit and Suzume has the Sharingan… oh my god they've got Suzume and Megumi._ His two best friends in the entire world… what could be happening to them?

"Haruki! Oh my kami have you heard?" Momoko rushed into his room and flung her arms around his neck, hugging him. She had to stand on her toes to do so.

"Torakiba, Suzume, and Megumi are missing." He replied grimly.

"It's not just that!" Momoko's face was streaked with tears. Yuuta and Koga were creeping in after her, looking around warily. "They finally got footage of the Kirigakure team that disappeared yesterday in the desert. Someone came up behind them and killed one of them, taking the other two. It was horrible, how they killed him…" she trailed off, eyes perfect circles in her plump face.

"A few other kids are missing, too," Koga growled. "One from Kusagakure and one from Iwagakure. They're doing a head-count of everyone that's left."

"Do they know what happened?" Haruki hoped against hope that they had just gone out for ramen.

"All evidence points to them having been kidnapped," Yuuta said, his head bowed. His voice was subdued. All of a sudden, there was a wail.

Kazuki and Asuka came in, Asuka crying into Kazuki's tee-shirt. He gave a look of long-suffering to the younger genin, tempered by concern.

"Hey, you don't see _us_ crying! Turn off the spout, will you?" Koga spat, irritated. Asuka glared at him fiercely.

"Did you see it? I doubt you did."

"See what?" Haruki asked quickly.

"The blood. The blood all over the curtains and the floor and the bed… there was blood on the _ceiling…_" she broke down. Jun whined and crawled into her lap. Kazuki pulled a small chalkboard the size of a kunai pouch and a piece of chalk out of the pocket in his pants. His short red hair was tousled, like he hadn't brushed it in a long time.

He wrote something on the slate and handed it to Koga. "'We went to Katsuro's room. There's a dead body that's not his and blood everywhere'." Koga read aloud. "'I don't have a translator n' Sis's useless. I have to write freaking small'. That sucks." Kazuki nodded with feeling.

"So… could it be like… how we nearly got kidnapped a while back?" no one wanted to think about it, but Haruki had to represent some sort of calm and collectedness. It was his duty as a Hyuuga, and never before had he been so thankful of being around such detached people before. The Hyuuga mask he had only ever had to use once or twice nearly crackled as it settled over his face. The worried wrinkle in his brow disappeared, so too did the panic from his voice and his hunched shoulders relaxed.

"I hope it's not," Momoko said. "I heard about it, growing up. That was the first time I'd seen the Raikage. And… Dad was angry. He said that Hyuuga-sama said-"

"-that they tried to take the kids with blood-limits." Koga finished. He raised his dark eyebrows at Haruki. "I'm glad I don't have one. The Inuzuka clan have got awesome senses, but it's not a blood-limit."

"Looks like you just missed out, Haru-kun." Momoko whispered, horrified. "Oh, you could have been one of them! We would've come to visit you this morning and found your bed all horrible and empty!"

A slate was shoved under Haruki's nose. He complied and read it. "'Chill. Only Katsuro's showed violence and I don't think the blood is his. He butchered'. I nearly _was _one of them, years ago, Momo-chan. They thought I'd be a good match, being a Hyuuga, only they didn't know I was the only one without the Byakugan." He spat. They all exchanged worried looks. What would happen to their friends?

* * *

No one had looked forward to telling the Raikage the news, but a mother has a sixth sense when her child is involved. She took one look at the blood spattered on all of the walls of the room and said, tightly, "It's not his. Keep looking," and then pushed past the cluster of people and to stalk off to where she found the nearest broom closet and started to cry. "Oh no… not again, Katsuo…" she choked, face buried in her hands as she leaned against the door to keep it shut. It was perfectly, blessedly dark in the closet and she couldn't even see the shameful tears on her hands. "I've… lost you again." She sobbed brokenly into her hands, struggling to remain silent. What would people think if the vicious Raikage actually had a heart, a care, a weakness? So is the dilemma of people in power. They just can't be human.

* * *

Author's note(IMPORTANT): Yeah. Here's where the real story starts. Please do not confuse "Katsuo" with "Katsuro". Yeah, hard not to, don't worry, but Katsuo Fukamori ("Victorious Man" and "Deep Forest") is Katsuro's father. Yeah, I know. No, Kurai did not have a child out of wedlock. Yes, she never talks about Katsuo. No, she doesn't use his name and neither does Katsuro. I don't know how to fit in that story…. I'll do it here.

Kurai and Katsuo were ANBU (yeah, ANBU rock). They'd been together a long time, having been old rivals. They were very much in love, but it's hard to be in love when there's a war raging in the background and you never know if you'll come back from a mission alive. So, when they were out on a mission, they eloped and got married in secret. Turns out, three days later, Katsuo is killed and so is Hikaru and their former sensei, Inazuma (damn I miss her). Kurai is blamed for their deaths and she is hunted. It's not nice to find out that, in the middle of your head being hunted, that you're pregnant. No. not a nice feeling that you've got somebody else to protect even if you don't really care about what happens to your own life.

So Kurai tracks down the truth and finds out that Hikaru faked her own death but actually killed Inazuma and Katsuo, framing her hated twin. Yeah, cataclysmic battle, the Konoha group get dragged in, blah blah blah. You know the drill. Kurai never talks about Katsuo because… well, it just hurts too much. She loves Katsuro so much because he looks a lot like his father and she can see Katsuo in him. She loves both of them as two different people yet the same person. Losing Katsuro is like losing her love AND her son at the same time. T-T I'm too sentimental….

I also put up a picture of the Cloud Team on my deviantart page. You can find the link on my fanfiction bio page. :3 please enjoy.


	14. One handbasket to hell, please

He didn't want to wake up. If he didn't wake up, he could drift in the dark painless realms of unconsciousness in eternal bliss. But reality is a real bitch and makes you face the facts sooner or later. He had to face the facts sooner, especially the throbbing sensation below his wrists and on his left shoulder-blade. Well, first thing first, he tried to open his mouth and speak. He steeled himself, took a big breath, and, "Fmmmmmck." He winced inwardly. Such a pathetic sound was hardly worthy of the heir to the Torakiba clan!

"Torakiba-san? Are you all right?" he recognized that voice. For some reason, he pictured it with candy-floss-pink hair and eyes greener than Asuka's. "Torakiba-san?" the owner of the voice gently touched his neck, searching for a pulse. He cracked a bloodshot eye and was met by a pretty girl bending over him. A purple bruise spread over her cheek and her long pink hair was tickling his face.

"Uchi…ha?" he rasped. It felt like a scorpion had made a nest of something nasty in his mouth. Suzume pulled out of his vision. Another girl peered down into his face, waving just the barest flicker of flame back and forth to check his eyes.

"Hmm. Slightly concussed. You've got a hard skull, Torakiba-san." Her voice was slightly raspy, as if she had suffered some sort of throat injury recently. Her eyes were a clear blue like the sky, her hair as white as the summer clouds above his home village. He noticed that, just vaguely, she smelled like some sort of flowery incense. Plum, maybe.

"Your hands are pretty much busted, though," the blue-eyed girl went on. "You must've really hurt the men that went to get you. Only one came back and he was covered in blood with you over one shoulder."

"Where are we?" he croaked. He tried to sit up and someone behind him helped him. He looked over his shoulder into the face of a boy, the same age as the strange girl with the same snow-white complexion. His hair and eyes were dark.

"Somewhere on the outskirts of Wind Country, I think." The boy's voice was soft, gentle. "But we're not familiar with the country. The stars are different from the ones over Water Country."

Katsuro looked at his hands. There was hardly a single patch of unblemished skin on them. They were black and blue and red. He also tasted tried blood in his mouth that was not his. He remembered waking up suddenly to a hand over his mouth and clawing his captor. He'd killed him and turned upon his partner but a sharp pain on his shoulder had made the world go black.

It was night. Either still the same night, or the next one. "How long have we been here?" he asked, gingerly trying to flex his fingers but finding every other one broken.

"I don't know…" Suzume said, biting her lip. Katsuro noticed a few other forms around them, boys and girls aging from ten to seventeen. Some of the faces he had seen in the chuunin exams, including-

"Uzumaki!" the smaller boy glared into the darkness, flicking through hand-signs. He ignored him. If they had gone so far as to kidnap the sons of two Kages, it was very bad news. He'd remembered something of the sort happening seven years ago.

"Do you have blood-limits?" he asked the two pale ninjas he recognized as the two Kirigakure genin that had disappeared during the first exam. They exchanged smiles before the boy countered, "Do we breathe?"

"Nii-chan, that's hardly fair," the blonde admonished, before saying, "Yes, we do have blood-limits."

"So it's like-"

"How it was seven years ago." Megumi finished unexpectedly, still staring into the dark. He gave up the hand-signs in disgust. Glittering eyes from the other captives shone from all around them, trained on the newest of their number. "Kids having a kekkei genkai are kidnapped in the night. They didn't succeed the first time."

"But… why me? My little cousin Izumi has the blood-limit. She's not as strong as I am so wouldn't she be a better target?"

"But she hasn't been weakened by a hellish test, has she?" Suzume said shrewdly. Only just then did Katsuro notice the manacles on her wrists and on the wrists of all the others. "Someone waited for us all to take the test. How could they resist us, weaker than kittens and just sleeping away? They couldn't take us when we were younger. They made a mistake back then, not knowing whether or not we all had our bloodline."

"But now it is certain and we are quite useless. They've placed chakra seals on us, stopping our powers and blocking most types of jutsu." The dark-haired boy piped up. His Kirigakure headband was scratched and dull and his lip was swollen as if he had put up a fight before being captured. "You may have noticed that you cannot activate your kekkei genkai, and if you somehow manage to, you only get a tiny bit, like with Kotone-chan." He indicated the white-haired girl who nodded her head serenely. "So they need the blood of the kekkei genkai to achieve whatever purpose they have."

"Maybe they kidnapped us because we're from powerful families?" Megumi piped up. Kotone shook her head.

"Then they wouldn't have bothered with me. The daughter of a now-dead jounin who never had two gold coins to rub together? The economy is picking up again in Kirigakure, but not that much. The old families were long ago taken care of. Like the Kaguya clan."

"But if they need blood-limits, some died out." Katsuro butted in. he'd been hearing stories about them for years. "Like you said, the Kaguya clan-"

"They'll just dig up their bones!" a girl almost as fair as Kotone butted in. Her headband depicted rocks and she had the hardened look that came from living in the mountains for a long time. "They want the bloodlines. It shouldn't matter if the owners are alive or dead. Lot's've died-out over the years. You don't think that would stop them from getting' what they want, do ya?"

"Charming thought, to be sure." Katsuro replied sarcastically, reaching instinctively for his chakra and finding… nothing. _Shit._He thought. _I can't heal fast without my blood-limit. I have no night-sight, no improved hearing, no better reflexes… no nothing._

"Haven't you tried escaping?" Suzume asked the Kirigakure boy.

"Of course we have!" he said. "Do you think we haven't? Any jutsu you manage to perform gets ricocheted right back at you with equal force because of the seal. If I did anything with my ice, I'd get bad frostbite or worse."

"I'd scorch all of my skin off!" Kotone said brightly.

"So… what would happen if I tried to use my Sharingan?" Suzume wanted to know. The Kirigakure genin exchanged looks.

"You'd probably go blind," the boy said frankly.

"_Really_blind." Kotone added.

"Well whaddya know? It's the new brats that always make trouble." A man leered down at them, his mouth was missing some teeth and he looked like he had been smashed under a big rock and then reformed. He wore all black and a headband depicting nothing but a jagged slash across the metal piece.

"You…" Megumi growled. "BASTARD!" he launched himself at the man but he fell awkwardly, gagging and choking and clutching his throat.

"Megumi!" Suzume cried. She looked up, eyes wild and furious. "What did you_do?_"

"Nothing," the man said nonchalantly, examining his grubby fingernails. "Just know that that is the _least _of your troubles if you even so much as think of escaping or harming me or my colleagues. We'll take good care of ya, don't worry. You're needed alive."

Other shinobi in black melted from the shadows. Cowed children got up, obviously knowing what was to come. "All right all you little brats, on your feet!" roared the scarred man. "We're moving out and if I hear so much as a peep out of any of you, you're going to wish your mama had drowned you in the river when you were born."

"Torakiba-san, get up!" Kotone whispered, grabbing one of Katsuro's arms and dragging him upright. "We can plot later! Right now we just need to follow their orders. It's better this way."

"I'm not going like an offering to a sacrificial alter!" Katsuro snarled, jerking his arm out of the Kirigakure girl's grip.

"Look what happened to Uzumaki-san." The dark-haired boy and Suzume were supporting Megumi, who was still hacking and struggling to catch his breath. "It is best to be complacent for the moment."

"Who are you, anyway?" Katsuro asked, amazed. The two older genin spoke as if they had decades of experience under their belts.

The boy and girl, polar-opposites in hair- and eye-coloring, exchanged unreadable looks.

"I'm… Kotone. Kotone Kiyoizumi." The girl said at last, bowing slightly and wincing as her manacles were jerked by one of the enemy shinobi.

"And I'm Haku." The boy replied, giving the one who had jerked his friend a dark look. "We'll be your guides."

* * *

Author's note: HA!!! Hahahahha. Weren't expecting that, now, were ya? –wink- I couldn't leave those two alone. I love them too much. Yeah. I don't think the others will realize who Haku and Kotone are. If YOU don't know who Kotone is, I suggest you toddle on over to my other fanfic, "White Plum". It explains who Kotone is and her relationship to Haku and Zabuza and Kirigakure in general. It's a rather short fic, so it should only take maybe not even ten minutes to read. I'll explain more later on. The reason Kotone and Haku are all manacled right now and not whooping ass is that in this story, ghosts and spirits have limited power and must operate as mortals when they try to interfere with mortal lives. Until next time, sweeties. 


	15. Taking Action

The thing is, when you are a symbol of power, strength, and confidence to your people, you have a very limited range of movement. Say if you live in a republic, your president can't just go chasing down every criminal and beat him over the head. Or, if you are living in a monarchy, your king or queen can't just take up a sword and lead a war against crime. No. they need to stay where people can see them to let everyone know that everything has _not_ gone to hell in a hand basket.

Even though it has.

The secretary was hiding under her desk, quivering. She'd said about two-and-a-half words to the Hokage, and those had been "Good morning Hoka-" but she'd gotten a death glare and a slammed door for her efforts. There was then the sound of a table being over-turned and something expensive being shattered explosively against the door. The Hokage was in a mood, and rightly so.

All over the known lands, Kages and Lords were sending out notices to every single district under their jurisdiction. -KEEP CHILDREN CLOSE. KIDNAPPERS ALREADY TAKEN CHILDREN FROM EVERY HIDDEN VILLAGE-

No one dared stay out after dark. Rumors had gone around as to how the rooms of kidnapped children had been found, sparked off by Katsuro's own violent struggles.

Whenever a mother went out to do the shopping, she always brought her children with her; and perhaps a big strong older child as well. "Mom, I'm_sure_ they wouldn't take the twins," Ichiro repeated for the fiftieth time. He had a hand on the collars of each little black-haired girl. They chirped and chattered to each other like birds. Azami and Ayame, age seven, were as alike as two peas in a pod and didn't seem to mind in the least that their big sister was AWOL.

Sakura, on the other hand, was frantic and Ichiro had gotten an indefinite time off from missions to give his mother peace of mind. He was a good son. But the idea of his little sister, the only who looked so much like their mother, being dragged out of her bed in the middle of the night to who knows where… it set his blood boiling.

* * *

The greatest shinobi who were not needed to protect their villages had all congregated in Sunagakure. It was Kiba's time to shine, being the best tracker… or one of the best trackers. He and Kagemaru Torakiba occasionally growled when the other looked in their direction.

"We have another mystery afoot," they stood around the Kazekage's desk for briefing. Gaara looked even scarier than usually, a certain vein was twitching nearly constantly in his temple and his hands splayed on his desk as he leaned forward over it. "The two Kirigakure genin that disappeared in the first test… the Mizukage said he didn't send _any _shinobi to compete in the exams." Dead silence greeted his words.

"What the f?" Kiba spoke everyone's thoughts aloud. "What the hell does that mean?"

"They went by the names of Haku and Kotone Kiyoizumi. There are no records of any 'Haku' or 'Kiyoizumi Kotone' of the last twenty years. The last Kirigakure ninja named 'Haku' never participated in any sort of chuunin exam. There's better luck with 'Kiyoizumi Kotone'. She did exist and represented Kirigakure in the chuunin exams, but both of them have been dead for about twenty years or more." Temari said, slapping two folders down on the desk. They were pitifully thin, reflecting the short life-spans of their subjects.

Kakashi's hands curled into fists and Sasuke had flinched at the sound of the names. They were both painfully familiar. One had died as a boy protecting his precious person, and the other barely a woman had brought down the dreaded Kisame on her own but was destroyed not even thirty seconds afterward by the one and only Itachi Uchiha.

"And the third of their team? The one that was killed in the desert?" Kagemaru asked sharply, hating the weather and the delay.

"Apparently, he never existed." Kankurou's voice was tight and angry. "There was only a scorched bit of sand turned into glass where he died. I looked over the surveillance tapes personally. He burst into fire and disappeared."

"A fire bunshin?" Sasuke thought aloud, not quite sure he had heard right. The room was rife with tension and the revelation that three of the contestants were fakes seemed like some atrocious joke.

"You can make water doppelgangers," Kakashi pointed out to a few nods of agreement from around the room.

"And clones out of insects," Shino Aburame said, just as quiet as his son. "You can make clones out of nearly anything."

"But…_fire._" Sasuke snorted. "Fire is hard to control." As an Uchiha and therefore quite proficient in fire jutsu, he would know.

"We have reason to believe the girl, 'Kotone', has a kekkei genkai relating to fire. There are records of a hunter kunoichi of that name cremating her targets and leaving incense behind as an offering to the dead." Temari butted in.

"Odd bird," Kiba muttered.

"And the boy Haku-"

"We already know." Kakashi interrupted. They all stared at him. _No one _interrupted the Kazekage. But the Copycat Nin just couldn't, _wouldn't_ listen to the report. Gaara cleared his throat and Kagemaru picked up as if nothing had happened.

"Pick up the scent from where the genin were taken. Let's hurry up and find our kids, people. I want to get my hands on whatever bastard took them."

* * *

He was pacing back and forth on the porch that wrapped around the entire mansion, wearing a down the wax on the wooden floor. _Step, step, step, step, step, CREAK, step, step, step, step, step, CREAK, step, step-_ "OH MY GOD WOULD YOU JUST STOP IT?" he paused, looking at his sister, nonplussed. Hamono Hyuuga was considered, by many, to be the perfect Hyuuga. She had the Byakugan, she was beautiful, and, quite frankly, a cactus was far cuddlier than she was. She glared at her little brother. Even though she was sixteen, he was quickly surpassing her in height and that irked her no end.

"Stop what?" Haruki asked, his hair standing on end from having run his fingers through it so often.

"Stop pacing! I can't meditate with you thumping back and forth and making the floorboards creak."

"How can you meditate at a time like this?" Haruki demanded. "Megumi and Suzume are gone, and so are a bunch of other people!"

"I'm_trying _to figure out a solution, dip-shit," she told him acidly, flicking her long hair over one shoulder. "I'm under house-arrest and so is Hanami, so we can't be out there tracking down those bastards because we could be the next 'targets'." She spat.

"You're forgetting I'm a genin. I can't do anything either," Haruki growled, hands fisting at his sides. "They cancelled the exam while they attend to 'more important matters at hand'."

"Hey. Any good plotting getting done?" a girl with reddish-brown hair that flipped up in a funny way nimbly dropped from the roof, landing on her feet without making the noisy floorboards squeak.

"How did you get in here?" Haruki challenged. _I'm screwed. If she can get through with such high security, I'll never be safe from her and Miho._

Namiki Uzumaki just shrugged. "The seals are meant to keep out non-Hyuugas. I'm a Hyuuga by blood. So, any plotting?"

"It's hard to plot with his Emo-ness stomping around like an elephant," Hamono snapped at her cousin.

"I'm not stomping!" Haruki cried, fed up and short on sleep. "Just leave me alone, Hamono! I'm trying to think of a way to get Megumi and Suzume back!"

"I'm trying too." Hamono replied sullenly.

"We're all trying," Namiki said; her skills as a peace-maker passed down from her mother. She looked a little careworn, the forehead protector she used as a headband was askew and she was wearing a black dress and shorts instead of her usual bright orange and blue attire. She looked a little pale under her tan, a bit like the healthy sun-kissed look she sported was sprayed on. "But we're not getting anywhere. We need to talk to people without blood-limits. They have a greater range of movement."

"And who would that be?" Hamono wanted to know. Namiki thought for a moment.

"Miho."

Haruki felt the bottom of his stomach drop out to be replaced by a layer of cold dread like a sheet of lead. "We're doomed." He sighed, massaging his forehead with one hand.

* * *

Author's note: I'm sorry. I'm having trouble writing serious situations at the moment because I am reading a fanfic called "Mating Frenzy". If you are fourteen or over and have a suggestive sense of humor, I HIGHLY suggest you check it out. Some sexy situations but my god if they aren't the funniest god damn scenes ever. X3 Nothing too explicit, just a LOT of implications. Anko is sadistic, Tsunade is a match-maker, and Naruto is stupider than I ever gave him credit for. 


	16. Resoluteness and Reminiscence

"This sucks."

"You've said that before, Magumi."

"Well it stills sucks."

"I highly doubt the situation would have resolved itself in the last five minutes, Uzumaki. Now shut it before _I _do it _for _you."

Megumi shut up. He didn't have much of a choice, anyway. He was a little guy surrounded by people who were older _and_taller than him. Save for a few of the under-tens…. Katsuro glowered, trying to make his eyes bore into the back of his captor's head. His hands were still so much useless raw meat and Megumi had a rasp to match Kotone's from the night before.

They were manacled in a line, a leader chain running from the iron bonds at their wrists and held every five feet by a shinobi in black as they were shepherded along under the sparse tree-cover. "We're shinobi, for kami's sake," Suzume muttered. "Why can't be escape? It seems so simple and yet…"

"Don't try," a hollow-eyed boy with the look about him of a bird behind her said quietly so that the enemies couldn't hear. "If you try to escape that seal on your shoulder will kill you and if you have any siblings, they'll go after _them _next. It's happened before. They need our blood because we're special."

"I hate being special," Katsuro grumbled from in front of the boy named Haku, a few spaces up the line.

The white-haired girl, Kotone, sighed, she and her team-mate just as red as Suzume with sunburns from the desert. Haku looked back at her concernedly but she just smiled back. "It beats not feeling," she said by explanation. Her friend thought it over, neatly stepped over a short shrubby plant in his way.

"I guess…"

"So, do we know where they're taking us?" Suzume asked, catching Megumi as he tripped, the others able to take a faster pace due to their longer legs.

"Someplace unpleasant, I imagine." Haku cried out as a willow switch whipped the back of his neck. A cruel-faced woman sneered at them.

"Shut up. It's not for you to ask questions or to even breathe, you got it? There's more where that came from, pretty boy," she told the Kirigakure genin as he stared resolutely straight ahead.

"Same goes to all of you!" she raised her voice. "If I hear e'en one peep out of you, your hide is forfeit." When she wandered further down the chain to torment more kids, Megumi whispered, "She has an Iwagakure accent!"

"Not e'en!" the blonde Iwa genin from the night before hissed. "She's got the western Earth Country accent. Not Iwa, exactly. She could be home trained." There was more silence until the Iwa girl piped up again. "I wonder if anyone's tried killing _themselves…_"

"They'd just go after your brothers and sisters!" the bird-boy told her, scandalized. She gave him an annoyed look, tempered by her freckles that made her look like an imp.

"I'm an only child."

"Then they'd go after your mom or dad or whoever has your blood-limit," Kotone whispered.

"They're dead." The Iwa girl spat. "I'm not going to be some sacrificial offering or whatever! I don't care if I die!"

"Then live for yourself," Kotone suggested. "You'd be the last of your kekkei genkai then, yes? What do you do, anyway?"

"I speak to rocks."

"No, really? We'd never guess," Katsuro said sarcastically. "You talk to _rocks_, well isn't that all nice and lovely." The girl kicked his knees out from under him and he went down, making Haku trip over him and therefore the rest of the line became a mess. The shinobi laid about with the flats of their blades, each wearing a strange necklace with a number of shiny black crystals on it.

"You are a bitch and I will fully enjoy ripping your throat out!" Katsuro threatened, an angry welt under his eye. The blonde Iwa genin scowled at him.

"Just try it, cat-boy."

"Just hang on and try not to kill each other and get the rest of us into trouble, okay?" Kotone hissed. "I'm sure people will come after you lot. Isn't your mother the Raikage, Torakiba-san, and you, Uzumaki-san, your father's the Hokage? These people have angered very powerful shinobi by taking their children."

Suzume hoped fervently that that was true. She'd be a good captive, if only for the sake of Azami, Ayame, and Ichiro, so they would never know slavery.

* * *

The Raikage took a long, long pull on a cigarette. She blew the smoke out in rings, legs flung over the over-sized Raikage chair in her office, staring into space and basically being stoned. There was nothing special about the cigarette, though, so the expression was not drug-induced. _Katsuo could blow shapes with the smoke and chakra…_she thought wistfully._I never got the hang of it._ She leaned back, staring up at the ceiling. For some strange reason the entire room was mirrored. They say it had been remodeled in the days of the second Raikage, who had specialized in reflection techniques. It hadn't been changed since.

To some, it looked as if the Raikage was even more together than usually, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and without the crimson lipstick. But to those who knew her, they wondered why she had let herself go. Long gone were the crude jokes traded with the guards on duty, the gentle teasing of small children and random giving of whatever piece of hard candy she had in her pockets. She no longer tried to be a different sort of Kage, a friend and mother to the people. She was 100 trained killing machine at the moment and about to crack under the strain.

She glanced despondently over the picture frames she had on her desk. One featured her, twenty-five years younger with a boy of the same age, his hair the same gold-flecked white as mica. They gave enthusiastic thumbs ups to the photographer in front of a banner that read "CONGRATULATIONS". A buxom dark-haired woman stood with a hand on each of their hands, grinning smugly. Underneath, in the white border of the photo, someone had scribbled, "Inazuma with Kurai and Katsuo, new chuunins". She remembered that day. The day she had finally proved herself to her clan and the world at large. Another one was just her, seventeen years ago, in her ANBU uniform and smiling at the photographer as if she were saying "C'mon! Let's go!" in the margin an achingly familiar hand had written, "Kurai Torakiba, 20th B-day mission". She had not kept it as a memento of her birthday, but of the person she had met then and who had labeled the margin. The last picture was of a dark-haired infant, fast asleep and hugging a stuffed cat tight, "Katsuro, six months old" her mother had put below.

Three of the most amazing events: proving herself, her twentieth birthday mission being when she had met Katsuo again as an adult, and Katsuro coming into her life. There was another picture, she hoisting a six-year-old Katsuro onto her hip and kissing one of his chubby cheeks while he attempted to take her newly acquired Raikage hat. There was a pair of hands belonging to Yasutora attempting to drag a little girl, Izumi, out of the picture.

Kurai hauled herself into an upright sitting position, grounding out the cigarette in the ashtray and wrinkling her nose at the smell. _If only you were here, Sensei,_ she thought, propping her chin on her laced fingers and heaving a huge sigh. _You'd know what to do. And, Katsuo…_ she looked at her younger self with the boy in her chuunin picture. _If only you had known your son. He's so much like you! I wish he were more so. He's a Torakiba, through and through, it seems. Beat the tar out of every enemy he ever met and they never came back for more. You'd be so proud! I know I am. You could've taught him how to make birds out of leaves and how to tell the seasons by how much rain we get in a month. But… he's only going to know how to kill and how to walk on air. If… if the worst happens… _she banged her head down on her desk, shoulders trembling. _You're going to get to know him soon enough._

* * *

Author's note: I only just got the idea for the pictures when I was drawing earlier this evening. I thought, "Who haven't I drawn in a while?" and it came to me: Kurai! she's fun to draw, and so is Inazuma but I haven't drawn Inazuma because she is… well… _dead_and it hurts to think about her like with Kotone. So I even figured out what Katsuo is supposed to look like. :O It just kind of came to me. I draw so many characters who don't wear their forehead-protectors on their heads (heck, I wear mine around my neck!) I thought it was about time I did so. So Katsuo's bangs ended up flopping over to the side and he looked good with grayish-white hair. Not from premature graying, mind you. That's just his hair color, like Jiraiya always had white hair and Kakashi always had gray. Katsuo has stone-colored hair and he's not half as murderous-sounding as Kurai. –sigh- I'd love to write them together, but I don't know where it would fit. The banter, the flirting, the laughter, the love… it just makes me want to cry how it was all just taken away. I've gotten very bad with killing key characters off. - I just think, "Why not?" and it happens.  


	17. Planning

What most adults don't realize is that young people have a total disregard for their own personal safety. "It's for your own safety" will get no parent anywhere in an argument with their over-twelve child. Especially when said child is a ninja.

"Haruki" was brooding in his room, throwing kunai into a target he had tacked up on the ceiling. "Hamono" was meditating in her room, "Hanami" reading her scrolls. "Namiki" was supposedly moping in her room, having ignored poor Hinata's attempts at conversation.

The real Haruki, Hamono, Hanami, and Namiki were crowded into the back-room of the Yamanaka floral shop. The door opened and they all tensed, disguised as cardboard boxes, but when Miho was the only that came in, they poofed back into their original forms. "So…" the blonde said, leaning against the closed door and pulling on the string to turn the light on. "What can I do you for?" she fluttered her fingers at Haruki and he turned scarlet, remembering his last encounter with her and Namiki that had involved ribbons and barrettes.

"Yamanaka, you're the tactical genius. How do we get out from under all this security so we can get down to finding people?" Hanami Hyuuga asked, sitting on the huge scroll she always carried around, dark brown fangs falling over one eye. Miho smiled smugly at them all, crossing her arms over her hunter green-clad chest.

"Why didn't you ask Tsuno?" they all exchanged looks, save for Namiki, who rolled her eyes at her friends brazen-ness.

"He wouldn't do it even if we asked him," Namiki said frankly. "He's a stick in the mud."

"More like a dick in the mud," Haruki muttered. Hanami kicked him and he scowled at her.

"Should we bring in Ichiro?" Haruki wanted to know. Hamono frowned.

"He'd be up for it, I think. Maybe, maybe not. Uchiha-san's keeping him and the twins close. Suzume being gone really scared her.

"Scared me, too, as Megumi's gone as well," Namiki said fervently. "I can't even begin to imagine what they're doing to-" she was silenced by a hand over her mouth. Haruki had hushed her.

"Don't think about it," he hissed. His voice cracked. "We'll get them back."

"You make it sound as if you guys will be the ones getting them back, not dad and the others!" Miho's voice rose to a frightened squeak.

"Like the adults are going to?" Hamono's voice was even colder than usual. "Yamanaka, all of our parents are powerful people. Therefore, they are constricted because they can only wield that power in a relatively small way. My father is trapped here to show a calm face and to take control of the Konoha defense along with the Hokage. Your father is as well. Only those who are not specifically needed to defend us from a potential attack or more kidnappings are allowed to go out and hunt down those who were taken."

"What about Uchiha-san?" Hanami asked, eyebrows quirked. She wasn't as emotionally distant as her sister, elder by one year. "He's police chief."

"Ichiro's a big boy," Namiki said. "Plus, Sakura-san is staying with mom at the Hokage residence. That reminds me, I'm supposed to be baby-sitting." She smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Uncle Sasuke is an amazing shinobi, he's right up there with dad. He's needed to track them down, along with Inuzuka-san and Aburame-san."

Miho fell silent, eyebrows furrowed and deep in thought. "You know…" she began. "I have an idea. There aren't a lot of options here. I'll tell you on one condition."

"What?" Haruki asked, breathless. She gave them all a hard look.

"Take me with you."

* * *

"How long have we been out here?" Suzume asked, head resting against her knees as she panted. They had been allowed to stop for a break after keeping a punishing pace for the greater part of the day. The keepers rationed out water. They basically ate whatever they could snag off of a bush. Haku looked up at the sky through the thick canopy, looking even paler and more wan than usual. Bits of twigs and leaves stuck in his hair. 

"I really don't know…" he said, trying to figure out what time of day it was by the sun.

"I can't even tell what country we're in," Megumi groaned, flat out on his back. They had attempted contact with the other captives, but no one was inclined to talk very much. Escape had been tried, but it was met with painful punishments. Katsuro was carefully shredding the lengths of bandage his used as a shirt, burying a piece and carefully arranging dead leaves over it. "What the hell are you doing?"

Katsuro glared at the smaller boy. "I'm leaving a trail, dip-shit. You ever noticed how these guys always look to make sure we don't leave a trace, and eliminate any sign of us ever having been here? I'm trying to give some sort of signal for whoever may come after us." The rest of his bandage shirt had gone to binding his hands. They were healing, but very slowly.

Suzume looked interested. She glanced about her person before deciding on the gaudiest thing she had: her hair. She yanked out a few strands that shone out bright against her dirty palm.

"What are you doing?" Megumi asked, wondering if his friend had gone mad."

"Torakiba's right. We should leave a trail. Something bright but not to obvious."

"They'll notice pink hair," Kotone pointed out, hands over her eyes to keep out the light that agonized her dehydration head-ache.

"Not if a bird picks it up first." Suzume answered, flicking the strands over the ground when the guards weren't looking. "Birds' nests, yes? Some robin will probably pick it up to pretty his lady-friend's nest. It's spring, you know. That's what they do this time of year."

"That's rather a good idea, Uchiha," Katsuro said, unused to having someone think of something he hadn't. Suzume smiled tiredly at him.

"Call me Suzume." Katsuro returned her smile, even though it pained him as he had gotten a new slash on the cheek.

"Then I'm Katsuro."

"I guess I'll be Megumi." They couldn't help but laugh at the glumness in Megumi's voice, despite their situation. Soon enough a guard pounced on them and whipped them to their feet, complaining about how much noise children made.

* * *

Author's note: The kids take action! Yay. –does happy dance- I love Suzume. She's smart, spunky, but still pretty feminine, like her mother. Flash-back in the next chapter. Just wanted to get it out of my system without focusing too much on a certain Kage. 


	18. The Twlight Tweet

_"Hey… Kurai?" they were taking a break, she having unzipped her ANBU vest and taken off her mask so she could breathe in the hot summer weather._

_"Yeah, Katsuo?" she asked, flapping her tight black shirt to try and cool off. Her partner gave her a funny look. She thought fleetingly how handsome he was, with his stone-colored hair and brown eyes-_

_"I want to talk about our relationship."_

_WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?_

_"Now?" she squeaked, panic making her brain-cells die. "In the middle of a mission? Katsuo it's hardly the time! I think things have been going along well, no one suspects or anything and we can still go on missions together. You think we're going too slowly? We're busy people, Katsuo! ANBU, even, and we have to keep our minds on our jobs or we could get killed which would REALLY suck. Or-" here she gasped, not even realizing that she was hyperventilating. She didn't notice the amused look on her lover's face. "-you want to break up? Well, fine, fine! See if I care! We can just turn back right now and-"_

_Katsuo suddenly grabbed her arms and yanked her towards him, kissing her soundly. Her arguments died before they could leave her lips, her mouth being quite occupied at the moment. He finally released her and she felt her cheeks growing red. "No, goose," he said, smiling into her eyes. "I want for us to get married."_

She started awake, staring at her reflection in the ceiling. It was only a dream… a recollection from a past that was no more.

* * *

The bird-boy tripped, nearly dragging Megumi down with him. The order in which they were chained changed day to day. Megumi was far stronger than he looked, however, and hauled him to his feet. "Thanks," the bird-boy said.

"No problem. You're really light." The bird-boy shrugged.

"I have hollow bones. So does everyone else in my family."

"You're a Tsubasa, then?" Katsuro asked suddenly, listening in on their quiet conversation. The boy blinked owlishly.

"Of course. And who are you?" Katsuro grinned wolfishly.

"I'm Katsuro Torakiba."

Tsubasa frowned, feathery brown hair brushed across his forehead. "You are one who has stolen family secrets."

"I did no such thing," Katsuro said loftily. "My great aunt Inazuma saved Hayabusa Tsubasa's ass and in return demanded the knowledge of cloud walking. It was _his _fault for telling her."

"It was dishonorable to make my grandfather do such a thing!" Tsubasa's voice was going slightly shrill but he still whispered.

"He could have refused," Katsuro sneered.

"You Torakiba are without honor! To refuse something to one who has saved one's life is the act of a churl."

"Break it up, boys, afore I break it up _for_ you," Suzume growled, kicking a rock at them.

"I've heard from the older shinobi about your mom's cloud-walking," Megumi said, nodding to Katsuro. "Saw you do it with your team-mates, too. How'd you learn that?" Katsuro tapped the side of his nose knowingly.

"You'd have to starve yourself to learn, Megumi. You can only learn when you're under a certain weight limit. I learned when I was six. My mom learned when she was ten because she was a runt."

"The Raikage was a runt?" Suzume asked, in awe. She could only hope to ever have a figure as nice as the Lightning Shadow's.

"Basically it's really advanced water-walking," Katsuro said frankly, swatting a fly away from his eye. "It's easiest on cloudy or humid days, where you can stick the water molecules in the air to your feet. Also, right after the sandstorm, I walked on the sand particles still floating around."

"That'd be so handy…" Suzume said wistfully.

"But it is a family secret so hush," Tsubasa gave Katsuro a dark look.

"Hey… can you hear that?" The Iwa girl suddenly spoke.

"Hear what?" Haku blinked dazedly.

"It's a bird."

Tsubasa cocked an ear to the wind. Katsuro did the same and shrugged.

"A western meadowlark, almost exclusive to Fire Country. What of it?" Tsubasa said dismissively. Megumi and Suzume exchanged excited looks.

"We're in Fire Country!" Megumi whispered, hope shining in his pearly eyes. "We're home!"

"Sorta. Fire Country is big. We have no idea _where _in Fire Country." But Katsuro couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Do you talk to birds?" the Iwa girl demanded of Tsubasa. He blinked at her.

"What?"

"Do you talk to birds? I talk to rocks and they don't know shit about who's been by recently, or how far away anything is. You seem to know an awful lot of birds and I've heard of your clan so spill. Ask. The. Bird. Where. We. Are."

They stared at Tsubasa, all still walking along, feet and chains dragging. The captors looked nervous, constantly glancing around and making hand-seals to keep up the illusion of a simple line of ants. "I'll try. His dialect is unfamiliar to me and it will be a rough translation without chakra." Tsubasa made a whistling sound, disguising it as just another bird-call so no one would get suspicious. There was a sudden burst of birdsong all around them as birds asked their neighbors and passed the message along.

"What did you say?" Kotone asked, curious. Maybe her and Haku's mission wouldn't be so long after all.

"I asked where the rock with human faces on it is," Tsubasa answered with a bird-shrug. "They have a very basic way of thinking, so you have to phrase things as simply as possible. They don't get the idea of a 'village' and hardly think of buildings as humans nests. They certainly cannot distinguish a ninja village from a normal one."

"So… have they answered yet?" Katsuro had a hard time of thinking as birds as good for anything but a meal.

"It is not good. They are asking their friends and family. They have not seen a rock with human faces on it, as I understand your Hokage Monument is. We should know how far away we are by nightfall."

* * *

Gaara put his hands over his ears, the familiar vein in his temple pulsing again.

"Hurry up! How hard can it be to get a scent?"

"Don't rush me, Hyuuga. There's thousands of different scents so don't give me any crap!"

"I'm not even part of your village and I already want to leave!"

Why was it that the best Jounin of a village were also the most obnoxious? He was about to go mad with Hanabi Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Kagemaru Torakiba constantly bickering. There was hardly any physical evidence of the kidnappers, so they had to rely on scent. Therefore, on the Torakiba and Inuzuka clan. He could hear a snide comment and a cry of pain, then a deep bark coupled with a baritone voice that soon rose to a yowl. Ugh. Jounin. No wonder they hadn't made it to ANBU level.

There was a thump and a few cries of encouragement. One was the one and only Mitarashi Anko, going, "Hit him! HIT HIM AGAIN!"

"Oh for the love of- ACT LIKE ADULTS!" the last voice boomed and shook the walls. Gaara had to quickly rescue his pot of ink before it spilled all over his scrolls of paperwork.

"Takumi, what the hell was-"

"IN CASE YOU'VE FORGOTTEN: YOU'RE ADULTS AND THEREFORE RESPONSIBLE FOR FINDING THESE KIDNAPPERS AND THERE IS NO TIME TO SQUABBLE LIKE TODDLERS!" Utter silence followed. Or maybe it only seemed like silence, as the Kazekage was afraid his ears had ceased to work.

"I don't think that was quite-"

"Kakashi, if you like your eardrums un-popped, shut up." That was Kurenai. "The thing is with toddlers, you have to let them scream it out. Then they sleep like logs." She would know, having raised Saruo by herself after Asuma Sarutobi met his demise at the hands of the Akatsuki. _One of many to perish with their last sight being the red clouds, _Gaara thought grimly, having had his own run-ins with the organization. Oh well, back to work….

* * *

Author's note: Yup. I named the Asuma/Kurenai kid. His name is Saruo Kurenai, in honor of Asuma Sarutobi and the Sandaime. You may or may not remember Saruo Momochi from Haruka 17. It's a live-action drama and a manga, I believe. Hilarious. X3 Suzume gets suspicious in the next chapter. Shhh! 


	19. Sleepless Nights

The Kazekage wasn't the only one thinking about the Akatsuki. Malignant red clouds haunted a certain Kirigakure kunoichi's sleep.

She was once again standing on the border of the Land of Tea, bleeding profusely with barely enough breath left in her body to sustain her. The air was heavy with the coppery tang of blood as she leaned on the broken Samehada, light-headed from blood-loss and victory. She'd finally done it! She'd killed Hoshigaki Kisame and could now return home, a true and loyal shinobi to her village. _I can go back to reading more now, while I recover, _she thought faintly. _I can start gardening again, too. I hope Kenta remembered to water by miniature roses-_

There was the minute crack of a small twig being broken under-foot. She whipped around, eyes wide. _No! I forgot about-_ a fist laden with chakra punched through her chest right under her heart, destroying lungs and ribs. _–the other one._

The eyes of Uchiha Itachi were faintly curious when he withdrew his hand, blood spattering the already stained ground. Why did the girl not fall? She looked almost as if she were waiting for something.

"Nee-chan?" she didn't deserve to hear that voice. She didn't deserve it at all in her final moments. "Kotone, wake up." It was impossible to wake from death. He should know that, being dead himself… "You're dreaming or something!"

She started awake, sitting up immediately and clutching her chest, trying to catch her breath. She had no racing heart to still. The one who had woken her up looked alarmed, dark eyes wide in the dark.

"Nii-chan?" she gasped, pushing snowy-white bangs out of her eyes. "I… I didn't know that I could still dream."

"I didn't either." They spoke in whispers, afraid to wake anyone up or alert anyone to fact that they were both awake. They bent down low among the fitfully sleeping forms, like small children afraid to be caught out of bed. "Are you all right? Was the dream bad?"

Kotone shook her head, rubbing her arms against the slightly chilly spring night. "It was… the day that I died and you came for me," she began. "My last mistake. I forgot about Kisame-san's partner, Itachi Uchiha."

Suzume's ears were immediately pricked and open, having heard her surname._They're talking about Uncle! _Uncle Itachi, her father's elder brother that she had never met. He never mentioned him, anyway. He always looked strangely lost whenever he did so. _They know Uncle?_ That was strange. And what was this, "It was the day that I died and you came for me"? _Who are these people, really? _She wondered, keeping her breathing slow and deep to maintain the impression of being asleep. Was it some figure of speech? Code for something? _Are they spies among us that pass information to the bad guys with the black crystal necklaces? _No… no, it couldn't be. That boy, Haku, didn't look like he had it in him to be a double-crosser. And the girl, Kotone, was just too nice to the others; supporting someone who nearly tripped, giving her water-ration to a younger captive, etc. But they were Kirigakure after all. The Bloody Mist Village. Maybe they weren't quite what they seemed….

There was more silence, but Suzume could tell that Haku and Kotone were still awake. Finally, "Can we save them?" it was Haku, but he sounded much younger than he looked.

"I hope so," Kotone whispered back. "But we can only influence and act as humans. The Rules keep us from intervening in less than human ways." Haku sighed gustily.

"If Zabuza-san-"

"Nii-chan, he couldn't act any differently from us. Besides, he'd attract more attention. 'Zabuza Momochi' is a pretty hard-to-ignore name, being one of the Seven Swordsman. And he was never good at the whole sneaking around thing. That's _our_ job."

Suzume's heart skipped a beat. Were these people even mortal? Were they gods? Were they- here she almost gasped –Kitsune just playing with her and her friends? But… she quickly peeked then closed her eyes again. No glow of hoshi-tama and no flames over their heads OR tails. She'd heard of Zabuza Momochi from her parents and Uncle Naruto. As she recalled he'd had a little subordinate named- her heart skipped a beat. _Haku. And the one to kill Uncle Itachi's former partner was a female hunter nin from Kirigakure named… I can't remember much, but the surname was "Kiyoizumi"._ She was starting to get freaked out. But they didn't seem to mean any harm.… As far as she could remember, Kiyoizumi and Haku were on the "good" side. But, if they were the same people, were they still on the same side? How could they be the same people, though? They were dead with more than enough evidence to prove their demise. _If only Haruki were here. He'd know what they were about, with his chakra senses._ She found herself thinking more and more about Haruki Hyuuga as their captivity wore on. At least she had Megumi. She loved him as a brother and there weren't many people better than he to have in a fight, but the third number of their team was the planner, the one who stole the enemy's pants before he could say "boo".

* * *

In fact, Haruki was thinking about a certain pink-haired girl as well as he raced through the tree-tops, accompanied by his sisters, Namiki, Miho, Yuuta, and Koga with Jun in his jacket. He hadn't wanted to take along so many. He didn't want more of his friends to be taken. But after Hanami forcibly beat some sense into his head with her giant scroll, he stopped complaining. _Well, it's not an army, _he thought, looking back at his team-mates. They were mostly hidden in the tree-tops, but every now and again someone would dart into a patch of moonlight and be outlined in silver. _But it's the best damn team ever… save for having the girls tag along. _He scowled at the thought, having resentment towards every female present. _But I guess they'll be good in a fight…_. Good thing no one could hear is sexist thoughts, for his own safety.

* * *

"She's not here?" Hinata's voice rose to a squeak, eyes widening in horror as her hands flew to her mouth. "Oh no… oh no Namiki not you…" she'd discovered the bunshin not thirty minutes ago and had spent the last twenty tearing through the mansion, calling for her daughter. Saruo Kurenai was also looking, as part of the Hokage's personal guard.

He was bent over panting while Lady Uzumaki questioned Sakura. Sakura looked alarmed, Azami peering around her legs. Her pink hair stuck out slightly, escaping her forehead-protector that she still used as a headband. Poor Hinata was reduced to the stutter that she had fought past long ago. "B-but I th-thought she'd be here w-with you, m-m-maybe…"

"Have you checked Ino's place?" Sakura was quickly pulling on a jacket and detached her child from clinging to her knees. "Ichiro! Look after your sisters!" there was a long-suffering sigh from the depths of the house and a, "Hai, Kaa-san.".

"I h-haven't ch-checked quite yet… and… and…" Hinata swallowed, forcing her hands down at her sides and making her words come out without stuttering. "I'll check the Hyuuga main house. Could you check Ino and Shika-san's home?" Sakura patted Hinata on the shoulder and disappeared. Hinata leapt nimbly from rooftop to rooftop, Saruo close beside her, refusing to let her out of his sight. If he didn't, the Hokage would have his hide. His mother would want part of his hide and well, being rather protective of her former student.

* * *

"Is Namiki-chan here?" Ino was wide awake and reaching for a kunai before she saw the familiar silhouette in the window. Shikamaru made a grumpy noise and continued to snore.

"What? Namiki-chan? No, she's not. Oh my kami is she missing?"

"Hinata can't find her. Would Miho know?" Sakura asked, stepping down from the sill and into the bedroom, still as limber as she had been as a girl.

"I'll go wake her up." Ino threw on a lavender robe and flew out the door, Sakura right behind her. The blonde woman screeched when she saw the empty bed, even though it was about one in the morning. "MIHO! Shika, wake up!" nothing would wake a man like the distressed shrieks of his wife. He was up in a hurry, ignoring his slippers.

"Ino? Sakura?" just what he needed. Two of the most troublesome women in Konoha were in a tizzy at his house before the sun even rose. He could feel another _long_day coming on.

"Namiki's gone, and so is Miho!"

"What?" Shikamaru scratched the back of his neck and yawned. Swiftly, he ducked into his son's room to find his dirty-blond clone sitting up in his bed. Just as blurry-eyed as his father.

"Hnn?" he asked, looking like a zombie. "Dad? What's mom goin' on about?"

"Namiki's missing, and Miho's not in her bed." Tsuno groaned.

"How troublesome." Shikamaru couldn't agree more.

* * *

Author's Note: -does hula dance- Ooooooh, foreshadowing!!! And if you STILL don't know who Kotone Kiyoizumi is, go to my fanfic "White Plum". I love this fanfic. I LOVE IT. I mean… 53 pages and no particular end in sight. It's just too damn easy to write. I've never known ANYTHING like it. It's… it's… I have such confidence with it. I used to panic and think that I hit a dead-end, but that was about forty pages ago. Whenever I hit a slight block, I just keep typing. I just push myself a little and it just flows smooth as molasses. It's amazing, really. I've got tons of old fanfics on my computer. I never go back and finish them. But this is such a heady experience. To have people actually LIKE my writing, to get all of my silly thoughts out on paper, it is a wonderfully challenging experience.

I dedicate this to all of my readers, no matter how few or how many of you there are. –blows kisses- You've kept this fic going just by your words of encouragement. If I have even one person to write for, that's good enough for me.


	20. Ran

Author's Note: "Ran" when spelled with certain kanji, means "war".

* * *

I'll be fine," Hinata told Saruo as they came to the gates of the Hyuuga Mansion. "Go tell the Hokage." Saruo made a face but obeyed. He didn't like giving the Hokage bad news. Hinata was first checked over for any sort of genjutsu at the gate by a harried-looking Hakka, then passed into chaos.

"Hinata!" that was Tenten, looking odd without her hair in their usual buns. Her eyes were round and red-rimmed. "I can't find them!"

"Who, Tenten?" Hinata had a horrible feeling she already knew who she was talking about.

"Haruki! Or Hanami or Hamono! Everyone here is doing constant security scans and you know you can look _straight through _a bunshin-"

"It's the same with Namiki." Tenten's mouth fell open.

"Namiki's gone too?" she squeaked. Suddenly, Hinata was very, very tired. The last week was just too much to deal with. From worrying about her offspring to relief of them getting through the first part of the exams, to worry again when her _baby boy _just was snatched out of his bed along with some other children.

"Tenten, Hinata-san!" Neji wasn't looking too good. The lines that already bracketed his mouth were deeper in the lights set up throughout the grounds. He held up a crisp piece of paper, neatly folded. He opened it up and read aloud, "'Someone has to do something. Love, Haruki, Hanami, Hamono, Miho, and Namiki.' There's a very tiny 'p.s.' in the corner, too. That boy could never learn his calligraphy right… 'p.s. Koga and Yuuta wanted to come too. They said I shouldn't leave a note, but you would find out anyway, seeing as how Miho's "brilliant scheme" are bunshin and you can see through those. –Haruki'."

When she left, she found Naruto bouncing on his heels, looking up and down the street and twitching at the slightest noise. Hakka was nervously watching him out of the corner of her eye. When the Hokage caught sight of his wife, he swept her up and kissed her soundly. "Saru-kun says that Namiki's missing too." It was a statement, not a question. Hinata rested her forehead against his chest, allowing herself to just feel safe in the circle of his strong arms.

"It was a bunshin," she said quietly into his shirt. "You know how Namiki is. I was up late and she tripped getting something to drink in the middle of the night. She- it- just burst into smoke."

"When I get my hands on the bastard that-"

"She wanted to go," Hinata interrupted, looking up at her blond man. There were fine lines around his clear blue eyes that she hadn't noticed before. Eyes so much like Namiki's. "Neji-san found a note that Haruki-kun left. I think they went after Megumi and Suzume-chan." He swore explosively, Hakka scuttling further away.

"Hinata, Naruto!" Sakura and Shikamaru had spotted them and were running down the dimly lit street towards them. "Miho's gone too," Sakura said, zipping up her jacket.

"I'm going over to Chouji's place to see if Miho is with Momoko," Shikamaru said shortly before disappearing.

"Then I'll look at the Inuzuka house," Naruto said, kissing the top of his wife's head and adjusting his headband.

"The Inuzuka house?" Sakura asked, quizzical. Naruto grinned wolfishly.

"They'll need a tracker, and the Inuzuka have the sharpest noses next to-"

"Yours," Hinata finished for him. He kissed her again and made hand-signs, vanishing in a golden flash.

* * *

They all congregated at the Hokage Residence a short time later. Tea and coffee was poured and scarfed down in alarming amounts. "We don't need this," Shikamaru said at last, dully staring into space, Tsuno miraculously dead asleep while sitting up. "We're already out looking for the others while making sure no one else gets kidnapped. This is far too troublesome for my liking." 

"They must have known how much worry they were going to put us through," Hinata had put on a brave face, even though the silence without her children in the house scared her. Thank kami for Azami and Ayame, then. They were sleeping soundly, one in her lap while the other leaned against Ichiro who was trying his hardest to look like he was paying attention. "Namiki's a caring girl, she knows other's emotions so well."

"And she can make Haruki listen," amazingly, the Hyuuga head was there along with Tenten. "Hamono and Hanami wouldn't do anything too rash."

"Three of them are chuunin, anyway," Ino pointed out, but her hands trembled. Shikamaru put an arm around her and held her close. "Hamono-chan was going to be a jounin next month if she passed the test."

"But we can't spare any people to go out and look for them." Naruto's expression was dark and brooding. "We put our best on the case of tracking down the kids that were kidnapped. Everyone else is needed to ensure that the war up North doesn't spread down here and no one attacks us."

"War?" Ino was horrified.

"A messenger bird came yesterday. War broke out between the Earth Daimyo and the Lightning Daimyo."

"That's suicide!" Tenten cried, hands flying to her mouth. "Lightning Country only has one Hidden Village, and a small one at that!"

"Tell the Daimyo that," Naruto said waspishly. "We'll be seeing no help from the Raikage. She's got problems of her own."

* * *

And she did have problems of her own. Very overwhelming and inconvenient ones. The orders for more and more shinobi were pouring in, flooding her office with scrolls all marked "urgent". "Raikage-sama what are we going to do?" her secretary, Ami, wailed. "There's just too much! With Torakiba-sama and Takumi-san gone, we've just lost two of our best! If the Daimyo keeps this up-" 

"Calm down, Ami," Kurai said smoothly, patting her assistant lightly on the shoulder. "We'll make it. It's not the first time Kumogakure has nearly faced war. This has been seven years in the making. We should have expected it."

"But now of all times?" Ami was literally wading through paperwork, her glasses askew on her nose. "If only Kumo was a bigger village."

"We rely on quality, not quantity, Ami," Kurai said sternly, sitting on a bookcase and running an oiled cloth over her assortment of wickedly sharp blade. "Less people to feed and we are underestimated time and time again. Like Suna was twenty years back."

"Oh, yes, and we all know how well _that _turned out. The Ichibi host?"

Kurai scowled at the younger woman. "He's the Kazekage now. He just had a leaky seal, that's all."

"You make it sound like a shower-liner," a girl sat in the window, as golden-haired and brown-eyed as her mother. There was just something inhuman about her effortless grace, the way on which all of her weight was balanced in her toes and how she cocked her head when someone spoke. It was the way with all of Torakiba blood. "Really, Oba-san."

"What have I told you?" Kurai demanded. But her fury was mocking, though half-hearted. Her "niece" cocked her head, curious. She was eleven but still cleverer than some people twice her age.

"Never to call you 'Oba-san' because it makes you feel old, Ba-chan." Izumi Torakiba answered promptly, sitting primly, the Torakiba yin-yang symbol emblazed on the front of her shirt. She was dressed in the characteristic muted tones of Kumogakure. "The Village of Fog with the People of Fog" as non-natives said. She held out a little brown bunny. It hung there, just twitching its nose at the Raikage. Ami immediately squealed how cute it was. "Can I keep it?" Izumi asked.

Kurai stared at her stupidly for a moment, thrown for a loop. Finally, she collected her wits and said, "Why ask _me_?"

"Mama's busy," Izumi said grumpily. "Afraid someone's gonna filch Yasu or something. I told her if anyone tried too, they'd be in a pickle because he doesn't _have _the blood-limit. Then he told me to shut up and Mama started crying about 'enjoying what time we have left together'. She seems to think that someone's going to just come and snatch us out of our beds."

"They almost did that seven years ago, Izumi," Kurai said warningly, shoving her knives back into their sheathes and belting them in their various places on her person. Izumi shrugged.

"Yeah, whatever. They're not going to do it again. So, can I keep him?" she cradled the bunny to her chest and smiled disarmingly at the Raikage.

"Izumi, a rabbit needs care and attention. You're a kunoichi: the only thing that needs your care and attention is _you_. It needs to be fed and watched and you have to make sure that no one's dog or cat gets at it."

"Him!" Izumi insisted. "I'll do all those things, really! Didn't you have a pet as a kid?" Kurai thought back and said, "I had a cricket for two months. It then died of natural causes because pets, overall, don't live that long. You're just going to get attached and then be a mess when it dies." _And that doesn't apply to just pets, _she added silently. _Humans as well. _"Besides, how do you know it's a him?"

"I checked," Izumi replied airily. Kurai wasn't buying it.

"You had Yasu pick him up, didn't you? Afraid a little bunny's going to bite you if you get u close and personal?"

"Anyway, can I?" Izumi diverted the conversation away from her skittishness around wild animals.

"Fine!" Kurai threw her hands up in the air. "You can keep him. But I don't want to see it again, you hear? Stay out from under mine and your poor mother's feet. We've got ears to settle and people to find." Izumi saluted smartly and tipped backwards out of the window. A few moments later, she was running along the roofs, the bunny tucked into her shirt.

Kurai sighed and stowed the last of her knives. She wished she could be out there looking for her son. Her heart ached at the thought of what they might be doing to him, if he was even still alive. _I'm sorry, Katsuro, Katsuo. I have an obligation to my people as well. Are they not also my children?_ She donned her robe and set her hat atop her hat. "Ami," she ordered. "Bring together the heads of the old houses and the jounin. We're having a council of _war_."

* * *

Author's note: Ehehe. The bunny is a reflection on the bunny that we just found.  He's cute. And I hope we can keep him. 


	21. Dare to follow

Suzume had kept a close eye on Haku and Kotone. She hadn't confided in Megumi yet, afraid he might laugh at her. But if Haku and Kotone were who she thought they were, they hadn't aged at all… or else they were ghosts. _And why would ghosts be bound in chains and shuffled off to kami knows where? _She tripped over a tree-root and got a lash from a guard. Katsuro was chained right in front of her, and the Torakiba yin-yang symbol on the back of his jacket was hypnotic as it waved as he moved.

"Hey, Katsuro?" she asked, once the guards had moved away. He looked over his shoulder, They were all weary beyond words.

"What?" he croaked. He had gotten a touch of the black crystals all of the guards wore around their necks and he was wary.

"Why's your family crest a yin-yang thing?" He blinked at her as if she were stupid.

"It stands for balance."

"Balance? Like… squirrels use their tails to balance?" that was the nosy Iwa girl. Suzume had found out her name was Kameyo.

"No, of course not," Katsuro gave her his "are you stupid?" look which she returned right back at him. "In my family, we're big on balance; the balance between good and evil, life and death, etc. Our old custom of twins fighting to the death stemmed from that."

"Kami, really?" Tsubasa looked horrified. Katsuro shrugged.

"Trouble spawns from twins in my family. My mother was framed by her twin and spent a few months as a missing ninja. No twins since then."

"I hope Azami and Ayame don't do anything like that," Suzume muttered. "That would be a real pain in the ass."

"Hey you brats, if you have time to talk you ain't marching fast enough!" a guard was on them in an instance, reaching for the black crystals around his neck.

"I dislike this environment," was all Yuuta said as they skulked around Suna. They wore henge that Hamono herself had guided them in creating. She deemed them adequate for their "low skill level". Haruki told her where to shove it and she hit him.

* * *

The moon was high and just starting to wane. They were extremely nervous, afraid someone who knew them would see right through their disguises. Koga especially, anxious that his uncle would sniff him out. Yuuta was just quietly being pissed at having to return to the "dreaded sandtrap".

"I think… the trail goes north, back from where we came from," Koga said at last while the others kept watch. They were congregated outside of the hospital in the guise of desert rats. Yuuta's insects were scouting for traces while Haruki stood absolutely still, sensing for any residual trace of Katsuro's strong fighting chakra. The last vestiges of high emotions were stale, that Haruki could sense. Katsuro had been dragged from his bed with extreme violence by both parties. He feel that the rage and fear had soaked into the surroundings, tainting everything the Torakiba boy touched.

"That fits with everything else I've seen." A desert lynx padded up to them. The kangaroo rats dove for cover. "Oh grow a spine, you people. Would a cat have a bunny-rabbit?" and, low and behold, a little brown bunny perched on the lynx's back. "And don't play dumb. I know who you are and I'm not going to turn you in."

Jun, still a dog, barked at the bunny. The lynx hissed then stretched, its form wavering. A second later it was a slim young girl, blonde with deep brown eyes but a strangely familiar set to her mouth….

"You wouldn't happen to be a Torakiba, would you?" Namiki asked, hopping forward then turning back into her old self. She was half-hopeful half-apprehensive. The Torakiba girl shook Namiki's hand, the bunny sitting on her shoulder.

"Izumi Torakiba, pleased to make your acquaintance. This is Haruki." She indicated the bunny. Haruki Hyuuga made a gagging sound and Koga snickered.

"You're here looking for the Raikage's son?" Miho asked. Izumi's eyes glowed eerily like a cat's in the moonlight.

"Of course. Familial pride, after all. As I was saying before, I saw bits of what could pass a sign up north of here in Fire country."

"Fire Country? They're passing right through our land!" Hanami cried. Hamono shushed her younger sister.

"What was the sign?" Hamono asked. The Torakiba girl didn't blink at all as she regarded the older Hyuuga.

"Strands of bright pink hair in a robin's nest."

Haruki's face went dead white, his brown eyes suddenly looking black against his fish-belly skin. "But other than that, there was nothing," Izumi went on to say, scratching Haruki-Bunny absently behind the ears. "Whoever's got them did an amazing job of covering their tracks. I could smell them, though, on the plants. They've got Katsuro, whoever has the pink hair, a boy that smells kind of like you-" she nodded to Namiki. "-a girl that smells like stones, another one that smells like plums, a boy like ice, another boy like grass, and a few others. Maybe ten or less people in all."

"That's a lot of people to hide and keep track of, especially if they're fighting back," Hamono observed.

"But I don't think they were fighting back that much," Izumi said frankly. "If they were, then I'd be able to smell the blood even if they _did _wipe it away. No, they're under control somehow."

"I can sense it," Haruki said grimly. "It's not chakra, persay, but something that suppresses it."

"Like… a seal?" Miho asked, hugging her jacket tighter about her person in the cold desert night.

"Yeah. But it seems to be a mix of different kinds. I recognize certain elements of from old scrolls back in the archives at the Main House. There used to be seals placed on members of the Hyuuga Branch family. They could be controlled by any member of the Main Branch. But the seal I guess is on Torakiba and the others feeds on chakra as well, and whoever holds the key to the seals can throw someone's own energy back at them."

"Sounds pleasant," Namiki commented, looking a bit ill. "So they went north like that?"

"It's where the scent leads," Koga shrugged. Jun whined at the tension in the air and pulled his head out of sight into his boy's jacket.

"Hey…" Haruki said slowly. "What happened to the other two on Torakiba's team? Asuka and… Kazuki, wasn't it?" Izumi snickered.

"I ditched them back at the village," she replied airily.

"So… they'll find you in a day or two."

"Pretty much."

"Shall we go?" Hamono stepped back into the shadows, followed by the seven other shinobi. They had friends and family to find and asses to kick.

* * *

Author's note: Urgh… Writer's block is trying to get me. DX NUUU! YOU CAN'T HAVE ME I!!!! –runs away from writer's block- I don't have much to say about this chapter. Not much TO say, really. Wait… I feel angst and darkness coming on…. THANK YOU FOXIE-SAMA. –faints-

And… 75+ pages right now.  I don't know where they all came from. My bunny's name is Roux, like Roux the gypsy from Chocolate, played my Johnny Depp. –faints-


	22. Gate to freedom

Megumi had a plan. He didn't tell anyone else. He _couldn't_ tell anyone else. They would hate him for it, he knew, and try to stop him, but it was the only way. He had some chakra left. The seals couldn't manage the powerhouse that was his inner-coil system. It was chaotic, at the moment. Trying to break free yet getting lashed back by the seal, his center in constant turmoil.

He_had_ to get word out. He'd been up listening to the guards talk. They underestimated how much a runty genin with a loud mouth could over-hear, especially with his keen hearing. War back home? Impossible! He could tell that he was no longer in Fire Country. The ground was wetter, almost boggy, with stands of marshy grass and strange trees Kameyo called "crypress".

The sun was just starting to rise, signaling the time when they usually set out. He dove deep inside himself, searching for the feeling of the seal. He could still feel it throbbing on his shoulder-blade, but he needed to find it where it affected him.

He passed memories, both happy and the more recent ones that he would rather forget. He didn't even both looking at the ones of sitting at Ichiraku with his dad; he wouldn't be able to concentrate if he thought about such food when all he had been eating lately was the odd handful of berries or nuts.

He'd always looked up to his sensei, Kakashi, for cunning and over-all skill. But he'd also been a fan of Rock Lee, a genius of hard work. Being short and stubby had always irked Megumi, and he'd always wanted to be stronger. He had terrible chakra control, and only managed Jyuuken because he had so much chakra in the first place. He'd learned about the Eight Gates from Konoha's Taijutsu Specialist, and had been warned to never, _ever_use them unless he was protecting people and there was no other way.

Well, he was protecting a whole lot of people and there was no other way. How many people could open up the gates? He had to somehow over-power the seal and give the appearance of being dead while not actually being dead. That's also why he enlisted the help of Haku.

He'd refused, at first, and rightly so. What the Uzumaki boy was planning was suicide, to Haku's eyes. Megumi, getting his good judge of character from his mother, appealed to Hauk's sense of duty and protecting people. Suzume would have skinned him alive if she knew what he was doing, but he didn't care. _She can skin me later if we live through this._ If he was correct in assuming that people were searching them, he had no doubt that they weren't that far behind with all of the clues that they had left. Suzume's glorious hair was now short and ragged from hacking it off with a sharp rock.

He'd only ever opened the First Gate, and then Kakashi had put him on suspension for such a foolhardy move.

He went further and further into his core, searching out the gates. He found the First, a barrier that limited the stress put on muscles. He released it. His muscles sang with strength, he felt he could do_anything_, but he didn't stop. He could feel the seal biting at him, its malignant feel nearly disrupting his concentration. He gritted his teeth and went deeper.

The Gate of Rest, he was wide-awake and no longer weak from hunger. His body demanded a fight with all the strength at his finger-tips.

The Gate of Life, his mind raced with all the sensations of his surroundings. His skin turned red with all of the oxygen racing through his blood.

The Gate of Pain, his lungs filled to maximum capacity and his head spun and suddenly the world was crystal clear.

The Gate of Closing, and the last gate he would open. He flung it open, prepared for the sudden rush of energy coursing through his system.

He found the seal's presence and released all of his chakra in one great torrent, destroying it.

Katsuro was awake the instant Megumi had started to mess with the Gates. _Ugh… Megumi's doing something. If it gets us out of here, I really don't care what._ But that thought was soon regretted when Megumi's skin turned scarlet. He sat up and was about to shake the younger boy out of whatever trance he was in when his chakra turned green.

"Uzumaki what the hell? Suzume, get up!" Katsuro kicked Suzume awake and she hit him back as a reflex.

"Megumi!" she squealed.

"Get down!" it was instant pandemonium. Haku, knowing what was next, planted a hand on Suzume's shoulder and pushed her to the ground and as far away from Megumi as possible. People were waking up and scuttling away, tugging at their chains to get further from the boy with the crimson skin and green aura. Kotone went dead white and her eyes flickered from Haku's unsurprised look as he watched Megumi, his entire body tensed. She saw him reach into his pocket and the outline of his hands clenching around long needle-like objects through the fabric. Instant understanding brought horrible realization.

Then there was something like an explosion that was more felt than heard. Megumi went absolutely rigid, then slumped over, small skewers protruding from his neck. Suzume screamed, horrified, her eyes huge. She ran to her fallen friend, Katsuro and Kotone not far behind her. Everyone else, even the guards, was loath to go near him. "Oh no, Megumi…" Suzume moaned, feeling for a pulse. She saw the sharpened sticks in his throat. "What the-" they were gone again before she could blink. She felt no heartbeat and Megumi's eyes were wide open, staring up at her, so dreadfully blank and empty. Blood trickled from his nose and mouth.

Kotone fixed her best friend with a very cold look. She flicked hand-signs at him. _What the hell was that, White?_ He looked defensive, but more scared than she had seen him in years.

_He had a plan. He wanted me to put him in the death-state._

_He opened FIVE GATES. And on top of that you skewer him?_

_He is Naruto-kun's son. He will be fine, Harp._

She was still wary, burning the makeshift senbon out of existence with just the tiniest bit of fire, but she could still feel her seal turning her power back. She was interrupted when a shinobi in black with the horrible crystals around his neck dragged Suzume away from Megumi. She screamed and fought, her nails scratching him across the face. She was reduced to a choking, gasping wreck when the crystals' power was used against her through the seal.

Katsuro was used to carnage, and so pulled the kunoichi away from her best friend far more gently than anyone could have thought him capable of. She still cried and screamed, but he held her back from further punishment. One of the guards kicked Megumi's corpse and checked for a pulse. She swore. "Damnit! We'll have to find another Byakugan. The damn brat's dead."

"How the hell did _that _happen? Master said the seal couldn't be broken!"

"We're_so_ screwed."

They unchained the pitiful body and heaved it into the swamp where it sunk out of sight. Suzume still cried his name until Katsuro put a hand over her mouth to silence her. She bit him, drawing blood. He just held her tighter, one arm looped around her waist. "Suzume," he whispered very quietly into her ear. "You can't do anything for him now. Don't make a scene. You could get yourself killed. Megumi may not even be dead." Blood ran from his palm, staining Suzume's pale throat crimson as it soaked the collar of her dress. She was horrified by the taste of someone else's blood in her mouth, appalled that she had made him bleed so much.

He removed his hand, torn bandages falling from it. Suzume cried into his bare shoulder, trembling like a leaf. Everyone else present just looked plain shocked at the cavalier treatment of one of their own dying then being tossed into a swamp with no proper burial.

Katsuro held the pink-haired girl close, refusing to blink as he stared at the spot where Megumi's body had disappeared. _Uzumaki, you bastard… _he thought. _You better not be dead or we are totally screwed._

They moved off, the guards even warier than before and constantly looking around. Haku and Kotone stood close, the blonde's head tilted wearily towards her partner's as he explained as quietly as he could. "So that's how it is…" she whispered. "I hope you did right."

"I hope so too…" Haku breathed, glancing back at Katsuro patiently keeping an arm around Suzume while she buried her face in her hands. "I'm sorry for her. She looks so much like Sakura-san…"

"But I can feel the Sharingan beneath," Kotone hissed. "She is strong. If anything, this will make her a better fighter."

Haku blinked at his friend. "You are cold."

"Of course I'm cold. I have no blood to warm my body."

"No, I mean you are cold towards this incident."

Kotone fixed him with a long, sad look. "Nii-chan, I only had four more years of life than you, but it was enough. In our profession, you must kill your heart to kill others. How did you remain so good?" He smiled back at her.

"I remembered our childhood days and kept my ideals up front."

Kotone linked her fingers through his. "I hope we can both do that, for this mission at least."

* * *

Author's note: -dodges thrown bricks, tomatoes, rocks, etc.- I'm sorry. Just some drama. I like the kind of sweetness between Suzume and Katsuro. NO, they are not going to be together. –vomits at idea- SuzumexHaruki, remember, 'kay? And I think I might pair Katsuro up with a certain female… you get a prize of me drawing whatever you wish (no yaoi, yuri, or anything perverted, please) if you guess who.  I had kind of dark fun imagining this scene. So tragic, so terrible… poor little Megumi-chan. Oh well. Until next time, sweeties! 


	23. Narazumono: Rogue

Kiba had his nose so low to the ground that he nearly snorted bog slime. Hanabi Hyuuga was perched serenely in a tree like some strange bird. Akamaru was sniffing as well, Sasuke Uchiha sharpening his kunai on the trunk of a cypress, keeping his ears open. It was broad daylight and they felt horribly exposed. They had already disposed of two scouts that wore black crystals on cords around their necks. They didn't have time to reveal who they worked for when captured, because the same jutsu that had strangled Shouhei and Junko got them as well.

Hanabi was just doing another sweep when she twitched and leaned forward, chakra gluing her feet to her perch. "What the…?" Sasuke turned his eyes to where she was looking, eyebrows narrowed. Akamaru was snuffling around beside the bog when he suddenly jumped back, the place he had been exploring was half-liquid half-mud and his paw-prints quickly melted into nothing.

"Over there." Kiba pointed, eyes narrowed, at a small stain of brown-red near the base of a cypress. The Hyuuga stepped down and walked out across the mushy bog, eyes glued to the ground and chakra supporting her weight. She turned paper-white and waved frantically to the two men. They were alarmed, having thought it impossible for a Hyuuga to lose their cool.

She shot her hand down into the muck, elbow-deep, and pulled. The sludge tried to claim her but The Uchiha had an arm around the petite woman's waist. When her hand reappeared, she clutched an arm. A child's arm. Kiba started to swear and went to help out, Akamaru whining and worrying on solid ground.

With a wet _schlock, _a dark-haired boy that was small for his age was free of the bog. He hung limply in Hanabi's arms. Gently, her hand trembling, the woman tenderly smoothed back her nephew's bangs, terrified of what she would see. "Oh… kami. Megumi-kun." She whispered.

He wasn't breathing.

* * *

"They went through here? Are you sure?"

"_They already said that five times, Nee-san. Shut up._" Asuka and Kazuki had caught up to our heroes on the border of the Land of Rice. Hamono's face had soured at so many new people, but a quick word from her brother soon had her looking thoughtful.

"Yes. You see less pink hair around, but more of the other captives have been leaving similar trails," Yuuta said quietly, running his fingers over a pure-white strand in his hand. "It could be a very strange coincidence, but the Land of Rice is where Otogakure once was, before they fought back against Orochimaru. He had his headquarters here."

They all exchanged wary looks. The wars of years past were prominent in the educations of all shinobi. One had to know the past to even hope of knowing the future. It was Miho that shook her head.

"No. Couldn't be him. Died years ago."

"Yeah, Uncle Sasuke killed him," Namiki added. "But that was years and years ago, before any of us were born. There was silence. They didn't want to relive the horror stories they had grown up hearing surrounding their own parents' fighting years.

"So, anyway, Sound, yeah?" Haruki broke the quiet, itching to get into action. He was like a terrier; quivering with suppressed energy and the need to seek out the enemy and tear it to shreds. "Pretty fishy, if you think about it. I thought they disbanded awhile back. But… if it isn't them, then who is it?"

Everyone was saved from answering when Koga and Hanami came back from scouting. They were both pale. Hanami had a slightly pinched look to her mouth and Koga was sweating. Jun, for once, was running along beside them and whined, ears drooping.

"What'd you find?" Asuka assumed it was something truly horrible by the looks on their faces. She didn't know any of the genin too well, but she could tell that they were tough. Kazuki looked concerned, his tousled reddish-blond hair in stark constrast to his twin sister's gleaming strawberry locks.

"Megumi," Hanami said in a tight voice, lone visible eye perfectly round in shock, the other hidden behind a curtain of chocolate-brown bangs. "We found Megumi. Or, really, Inuzuka-san and Aunt Hanabi did, along with Uchiha-san."

"Oh my kami is Megumi all right?" Namiki asked. Koga and Hanami exchanged looks, not sure how much to tell the girl. Haruki's skill with chakra reading had escalated since he had been using it so much lately. He could feel the distress rolling off of his sister and year-mate in waves, a nearly physical thing. The distress was something deeply unsettling to them, something they never thought could happen had occurred.

"He's dead." Haruki felt nothing as he said it, only a dull hollowness where his heart should have been. Hanami's lip wobbled and Hamono looked with alarm at her sister, unused to seeing any sort of sadness on her face. Awkwardly, as if she didn't know quite how to do it, Hamono put an arm around her fellow Hyuuga and held her close. Hanami didn't resist, staring hard at the ground.

Miho started to cry, Namiki looking at Haruki in disbelief. _Could it be true?_ The Cloud genin stood off to one side, respectfully silent as they did not know the deceased well. Koga glowered at the sky, eyes over-bright.

Suddenly, the hollowness that had occupied Haruki's soul turned into the strongest, most destructive emotion there was. It roiled and boiled from his toes to the roots of his hair, electrifying his nerves and sharpening his senses. His skin burned and a sharp pins-and-needles sensation began behind his eyes to spread across his temples. He didn't feel any satisfaction at finally have activated the Byakugan. He knew it wasn't the true Byakugan, but he didn't care. Whatever it was, it would help him track down and destroy those bastards who had dared to ever lay a finger on his best friends. Who had had the gall to kill Megumi, to trigger the fear that he had felt from Suzume in the hotel room they had been sharing the night they were taken. He relished the emotion that he knew could destroy him and everyone else in his path. He cherished it, stoked it with every bitter memory he had and everything he wanted to do to those kidnapping bastards. For he felt only one thing: _rage._

"Koga, Hanami… about how far away was where you found him?" he asked, feeling the Hyuuga mask solidifying his face once again. Namiki looked up, tears streaming down her face, to stare at her cousin. She'd never seen such a look before. She'd been around when he'd used his Hyuuga expression once or twice, but his face was utterly still and cold, devoid of emotion, except for his eyes. They were a pearlescent red, the veins standing out in his temples. He looked like a skeleton with his face thinner than usual from field-rations; just like the rest of them.

"It was… about a half-mile north of here," Koga answered, still looking up at the pale clouds scudding across the mocking blue sky. "Uchiha, Hyuuga, and Uncle Kiba were taking him back south, but on a route around us."

"So they're not still ahead?"

"No. They would've found us sooner if they hadn't been… preoccupied."

Haruki fell silent as his brain churned over the information. He couldn't just sense the chakra, he could see it in everything. There were bright veins running through leaves and plants, the steady glow that seemed to illuminate the bones of his friends. Even the ground and stones had a shimmer to them.

"_Hyuuga-san-"_ Kazuki started to sign, not liking the look on Haruki's face.

"Shh!" Asuka and Izumi hushed him at the same time.

"We'll go now," Haruki said. They all looked up at him. He pretended not to see the tear that had escaped Yuuta's sunglasses, or they way they had all clustered closer together for comfort, while he stayed well back from them. Some part of him longed to be comforted. To be hugged and told everything was going to be all right; that he was_safe _and nothing bad was going to happen. He mercilessly crushed that tiny part of him. He had to stay back, to stay aloof and way from the emotions that would mess with his judgment. It was easier for Asuka, Kazuki, and Izumi because they hadn't really known Megumi. He'd grown up with him. They'd been raised like brotherly rivals; the best of friends but always trying to show the other one up. He'd been jealous of Megumi having the Byakugan, of both his father and Haruki's own being proud of him for being a proper little Hyuuga.

Screw it.

The Byakugan had only gotten Megumi killed. It was a liability and whatever his belated bloodline had come up with at that moment was working for him. He looked at his hand, seeing the pearly sheen just under his skin. It flashed and writhed like a snake that had been impaled upon a blade, while the chakras of the others were relatively steady with only the odd tremor. He was in the only one in conflict, but that was all right. Nothing else mattered as long as he got his hands on those who had hurt his friends.

"We'll go now. They can't be that far off. I am going to hunt them down. And when I finally do? I'm going to kill every one of them until there is not a single fucking sonuvabitch left alive. Got it?"

* * *

Author's note: Writing this chapter was a very sobering experience, even though I wrote it on Christmas. X3 I just kept writing and writing, feeling Haruki's twisted emotions and how the fury he felt had created some sort of warped doujutsu (eye-related blood-limit) with his non-Byakugan Byakugan-blood. He can see chakra in everything. It can't be hidden from him.

And I, for one, pity the kidnappers when Haruki gets to them. I haven't written much conflict, but he's got Neji's techniques and rage. This is going to be messy.


	24. Who's next?

He blinked sluggishly, feeling as if he had been roasted like chestnuts at a festival then pounded into mochi. Every part of him throbbed horribly, but it could have been worse. It _should_ have been worse. _Shit…_ he thought, brow wrinkling. _I died. This sucks. Now no one's going to know where we wer-_

"Megumi?" something about that voice always made everything all right. The world was perfect whenever that woman spoke and he could forget all of his worries. Soft hands enveloped one of his own. He recognized that sweet, soothing scent like the flowers she pressed and dried. He cracked an eye open.

"M…mom?" Hinata Hyuuga looked wan and stressed, her blue-black hair escaping its bun. She smiled slightly, pearly eyes soft.

"Oh, Megumi, thank kami you're safe."

That was strange. He couldn't remember the last time he had been safe. Constant danger, chains, slavery, it had become his reality. He rolled his eyes, looking around the room without having to move his aching head. The walls were blindingly white. He could feel an open window letting in a warm, spring-day breeze. He could hear hospital sounds coming from the direction of what must have been a closed door. "I'm in the… hospital?" his very teeth hurt to talk, but he was too muzzy-minded to really care.

"Yes. Hanabi, Kiba-kun and Sasuke-kun found you in the Land of Rice."

His brain was on fire: memories he had been unconsciously trying to forget burned down the channels of his mind and brought instant wakefulness. He immediately sat up, about to swing his legs over the edge of the bed, his chest heaving and heart hammering against his ribs. His mother looked alarmed. "Megumi! What are you do-"

"I have to talk to dad," he gasped, clutching his heart. "They… Suzume and everyone else… I had to somehow get left behind and get back to tell you where we were-"

"Slow down, take a deep breath and start again." Hinata had her hands planted firmly on Megumi's shoulders, lest he try to escape. He breathed deeply like he would have had he been meditating; clearing his mind of all things save for what mattered.

"I… we were just taken out of our beds, like that!" he clumsily snapped his fingers for emphasis. "When we woke up, we were just… _chained_ with a bunch of other kids. They wanted our blood-lines for something, I think. They- the guards- had these weird necklaces with some sort of black crystal on them. They had… they could control us with them and they were heading north, always north." He knew what he said hardly made any sense, but the horrified look on mother's face told him that she understood.

Within moments, a number of the Konoha Defense Force were crammed into his hospital room, listening to his account. His father looked upon him with unutterable pride; proud of his only son.

When Megumi had finished his tale, there were mutterings and immediate plans to take action. They all shuffled out of the room to allow the invalid time to rest, having all of the information they needed. The Hokage was the last to leave. He lingered and asked, gold brows furrowed, "You mentioned a boy had put you into a near-death state after you opened five Gates." Megumi nodded, a little drowsy.

"Yeah."

Sakura poked her head back into the room and exchanged a knowing look with Naruto. "What… was his name?" she asked delicately.

"Haku. He looks like a girl. Said he was from Kirigakure." She blinked, green eyes disbelieving. She turned to the Hokage. He looked thoughtfully into space, blue eyes unreadable.

"A coincidence?"

"I don't care what it is. Everyone else is still alive and we have to take action _now._ You get some rest, Megumi," the Hokage's eyes softened when he looked upon his youngest child; so different in looks yet so alike in personality. He could see that, even as a little kid, Megumi would have done anything for his precious people. He'd gotten into a fight with another student in his academy days because they were tormenting Haruki about being a "special Hyuuga" with his "special blood-limit". Of course, then Haruki and Megumi had fought each other, but it was the thought that counted.

Megumi nodded, tired from getting the shit knocked out of him (by his own volition) and from the medic ninjas working on him. He flopped back upon his pillows, one arm over his eyes. The first thing he had wanted to do when he got back was plot with Haruki about getting Suzume back. But it seemed that Haruki and all of the others had gone off not even a week ago. Namiki had gone with them as well. He wanted to do so much more, but he knew he was in crappy shape and little more than a snack for whatever chanced upon him should he go back out there. But all he could think about was that those who had captured him were down one kekkei genkai. They'd be after another Byakugan, he was sure.

He wasn't too worried, though, as a full-grown Hyuuga was nearly an army all on his or her own. But he did wonder if Hamono and Hanami would be all right. Then he snorted. Of _course_they would be all right. Hanami was already a Special Jounin, and Hamono would be taking the test within the month. Hamono had only waited to become a jounin because she was the cautious type, always wanting to have all of the information available before she made a move. She was good at shogi because of that.

Occupied by these thoughts, only sheer exhaustion let him rest and he drifted off into a deep sleep, fraught with dreams of what could be happening to his best friends, and why his father's and Auntie Sakura's expression had turned so strange when he described the Kirigakure genin that had assisted him….

* * *

Suzume felt even more drained than usual, her peachy complexion ash-gray with exhaustion, just like the rest of them.

"Did… Uzumaki-kun have any siblings?" that was Tsubasa. He was a big picture kind of guy, thinking about the effects rather than the action. Suzume's heart hurt when she thought about Megumi, but it was starting to become a dull ache. She blinked. It was during one of their few breaks. They had settled a semi-permanent camp while a few guards went out to go and retrieve another Byakugan.

"He has one sister… Namiki." She whispered. "But she doesn't have the Byakugan."

"If he's got the Byakugan, he's one o' those friggin' Hyuuga, ain't he?" Kameyo was insensitive, it must be said, but she got down to business. "So they'd be after a Hyuuga. They got any kids?"

"Yes. The Clan head has two daughters and a son, but they won't be taken," Suzume said fiercely. Haku and Kotone were sitting nearby, listening and dosing while leaning against each other. Katsuro had gone straight to sleep sitting up. The other captives rested as well. "They're too strong. The daughters are jounin level and… Haruki doesn't have the Byakugan."

Kameyo snorted. "Well, they're desperate for the Byakugan, that's for sure."

Suzume hoped they would all be safe, but knew it would be foolish to put much faith in the gods. They were fickle and sometimes cruel. What were a few mortal minutiae to them in the whole scheme of things? Why should they care if any one or five people lived or died when there were millions more like them? With these comforting thoughts, Suzume drifted off.

* * *

Author's note: MEGUMI LIVES! -praises kami- I think Haku and Kotone are cute together. They're not involved romantically, you fools. –kicks perverted people- They're just best friends. I like sticking them in kind of randomly for sweetness in dire moments. I think we'll talk about parents in the next chapter. Ja mata, ne? –poofs away- 


	25. The New Captive

They hadn't moved camp in two days; a record. The captives were extremely glad for the rest, but it made the remaining guards exceedingly nervous and cruel. One had used the seal to choke Tsubasa when he had coughed too loudly. He sat in sullen silence, struggling to not gasp and further stress his damaged throat. Hardly a one of them didn't have a rasp from that particular punishment.

The morale, never very high to begin, plummeted. They were all sullen and antsy, like caged and starved pit-bulls, ready to turn viciously upon anything if it meant escape. Then, for want a better subject and wanting to just take her mind off of the present, Suzume asked, "Katsuro, what're your parents like?"

The boy blinked yellow eyes at the girl, her once glorious pink hair short and ragged from hacking it off to leave a trail. He ran his tongue over sore, sharp teeth. He'd gotten a kick to the mouth recently. "Well… you know my mom's Raikage…" he said slowly. Kameyo, Tsubasa, Haku, and Kotone dragged themselves closer to listen, anything to distract them from the reality. "She's awesome. Well, as moms go, I guess. I dunno. I have no other moms to compare her to, do I?"

"What about your father?" Kotone was resting her head against her upraised knees, eyes dull and clouded with exhaustion. Her face was thin, as was everyone else's. Katsuro shrugged wearily.

"I never knew him. Died before I was born, mom says. She doesn't talk about him. She always looks like she's going to start breaking things when I push it, so I never ask anymore. I asked Grandma. She said he was an ANBU, like mom, and they did missions together. He was killed by my mother's sister fifteen years ago, and mom was framed. That's about it." He looked at Suzume. "You?"

"My mom's a medic ninja, and my dad is chief of the Military Police Force in Konoha," she smiled at the memory of her home village. "The force was founded by the Uchiha Clan years ago, and used to mostly be made up of clan members. Then there was a massacre years back, so it was only dad and Uncle. Non-clan members started to run the force. The legacy was continued," she seemed proud. "And it gives the shinobi a rest because we won't have to deal with every single little disturbance. Kotone-san, Haku-san?"

The two Kirigakure ninja didn't even raise their heads to chorus, "Dead." There was an awkward silence before Kotone yawned and asked, "Kameyo-san? What about your family?"

Kameyo scowled, freckles standing out like dirt against her skin. She scratched her tipped nose before saying, "My parents are dead. No siblings. My grandpa raised me in Iwagakure to become a shinobi, like my parents. My grandpa was my mother's father, so he didn't have my blood-limit. If I die here, the Iwamori Clan dies with me."

"A cheerful thought," Tsubasa said sarcastically. Kameyo sneered at him.

"Yeah, whatever. What's your first name, anyway? Who the hell names their kid 'feather'?" Tsubasa sniffed haughtily.

"I never use my first name. It's stupid."

Suzume was instantly curious. "What is it?" Tsubasa looked deeply uncomfortable.

"I always go by 'Tsubasa', even back home. It's better than my given name… Sora."

"But Sora's a nice name!"

"It's a girlie name," Katsuro said with a weary grin.

"No it's not," Kameyo looked disappointed at Tsubasa' name being so… _normal_.

"Yes it is. Sora-chan, Sora-rin, Sou-chi-" Haku poked him sharply in the spine.

"Don't be mean." Katsuro stuck his tongue out at the pretty boy and subsided into silence.

"Anyway, I've got a clan to think about back home. My grandmother is the matriarch and my mother is next in line. The line passes from female to female." There was a snort from Katsuro but no insults came. They were saved from making further forced conversation when the guards returned with a limp form between them. It was a boy and he looked unconscious. They chained him to the very end of the line and roused him with kicks. Hurriedly, always looking around and over their shoulders, they got the rest of their captives moving.

Suzume felt both ecstatic and mortified at the same time, her mouth going dry. The boy glanced at her and smiled. But his smile looked pained, a purple knot on his head and blood caking his hairline. "Hey, Suzume," he whispered. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw his eyes. They were pools of rose-tinged white like some perverse version of the Byakugan.

"Oh, kami, Haruki."

"You look like shit, Hyuuga," Katsuro said, grinning shakily. "You're a shit-head, if you let them get you." Haruki shrugged and examined the chains on his wrists.

"That'd make you a shit-head too, since they nabbed _you_."

"Are you Hyuuga-san? What are you doing here?" Kotone's mouth a thin white line, her lips pressed together as she tried not to faint.

"Someone had to come rescue you guys," Haruki chuckled grimly. "Couldn't do it yourselves, could ya?"

"So that's why they're so nervous," Haku murmured. "If you got here on your own, then the older shinobi must have as well."

"I didn't come on my own," Haruki corrected, too quietly for he guards to hear. "Miho, Namiki, Koga, Yuuta, Hanami, and Yuuta came too. Also the Uotani twins and some Torakiba girl."

"Izumi's here?" Katsuro hissed. "How the hell did mom let her get away? And Asuka and Kazuki too…"

"Namiki?" Suzume repeated. She looked down at the ground. "Did… do you know that… Megumi…"

"He's dead." Haruki finished for her. She nodded, not looking at him. "Not even three days ago. They just slung him into the swamp, no proper burial whatsoever-"

"Aunt Hanabi found him, along with your dad and Inuzuka-san." Haruki squeezed her hand reassuringly. "He's getting a good place on the memorial stone, I can guarantee it." Suzume sighed.

"I just wish… wait, if you're here… you don't have the Byakugan, do you?" she looked up the scant inches between their heights, searching Haruki's eyes. "How hard did they hit you in the head? You've got that internal bleeding blush."

"It's not that, exactly…" Haruki began. "I really don't have much of an idea of what it is. I have no pupils, and I can't see normally, but I can see chakra, Suzume! SEE chakra in absolutely everything." He said with relish. Suzume gnawed on her lip, a habit of hers that many found endearing.

"It doesn't look… healthy," she said frankly, nearly tripping over a rock and thanking Tsubasa for catching her. "I mean… if ever a technique looked pathogenic, that does." And it did. It looked a bit like a really bad case of pink eye, save for the lack of pupils and the manic violence that lurked just under the surface, making the user relatively unstable. Haruki brushed her off.

"I don't care. I don't like it, but I don't care. Just… when I snap, _run_, okay?" Suzume blinked.

"Haruki-"

"No. And the rest of you-" he glared around the listening captives. "I don't care what you do. Just run back to your villages as fast as you can."

"What about the others that came with you?" Kameyo asked suspiciously. "Why'd you get captured, anyway?"

Haruki sighed impatiently. "I _let _them capture me. The others are within 100 meters at all times. That's Hamono's Byakugan limit. I give the signal, and we're all free and those guys-" he glared at the back of a guard's head. "-are raccoon shit."

* * *

Author's Note: No, that is NOT the Byakugan Haruki's got. –shudders- Frankly, I don't know what it is either. It's something twisted,_evil,_ even. Don't think it's cool or you'd like to have it. It was born of hatred and deep resentment, of violence and the urge to kill without mercy, to slake an unquenchable lust for blood. It's just beneath Haruki's surface, waiting for any sort of trigger to release and wreak carnage and slaughter. Hate is an ugly thing, though comforting sometimes. It will get a hold of you and not let go until you die. It will drive away all those you care about and destroy you from the inside out. It is a waste of living. Make your peace with whatever or whoever you dislike, and go on your way. Life is too short to hate. 


	26. Research

Hamono dropped lightly from her perch in a tree, hair fluttering like a dark banner. "He's in," she whispered, just loudly enough for the others to hear. They nodded, looking shaken. "I still don't get why _I _couldn't have gone instead." Hanami wasn't usually one to complain, but she felt cheated of excitement. "I mean, I actually _have_the Byakugan, not some freaky-assed thing that looks like a disease!" It was a rare occurrence for her Hyuuga calm to calm. "I mean… urrrrrg!" she growled and made a throttling motion with her hands, giant scroll strapped across her back. "If he dies I'll kill him."

"Hanami…" Hamono said warningly. "Keep your cool. You know they may not have fully accepted you as a true Byakugan user." Hanami brushed her bangs out of her face to glare with both eyes at her sister; one dark brown like their brother's, one pearly.

"You don't have to remind me," she spat, voice dripping poison. "Just shut up and make sure you don't fall off of that high horse you're on."

"Please, let's calm down," Yuuta suggested, his insects becoming restless at the tension in the air. "Haruki obviously he could handle this. He is a gifted shinobi. What has happened to his eyes is unnatural¸ but not totally unheard of."

"Yeah," Miho said, wiping sweaty palm off on her short, dark green skirt. "Similar things have happened to those who possess the blood of a blood-line, but no blood-limit. They're called Narazumono Genkai, Rogue-Limit. The power for the blood-limit is there but its flow has been diverted from forming into the kekkei genkai, instead warping under the presence of unstable chakra that can be caused by strong emotions."

"So… could that happen to me?" Namiki squeaked, blue eyes wide. Miho shook her head, her blonde ponytail flicking side to side.

"It's extremely rare, and there are only one or two accounts of it in any great detail. It makes the user mentally unstable and can be triggered to reckless acts of violence."

"Aw man, Haruki," Koga muttered. Jun whined, licking Koga's chin. "That's got to suck."

"We just can't be around for that, then," Asuka said forcibly, winding her fighting chain around her fists. Kazuki nodded, feeding Haruki-bunny a slice of carrot.

"It's not pretty when the normal kekkei genkai get roused," Izumi said soberly, fluffing up her blonde bangs. "I grew up surrounded by savage fighters. We can hardly distinguish blood-limit from normal state in my family. The wild cat is very much a part of us, even if we don't have the blood-limit. I don't want to be anywhere nearby when Hyuuga-kun blows his top with a rogue blood-limit."

They all exchanged glances. "If he goes rogue, there's no turning back." The genin and two jounin stared at Miho, unblinking. She looked cowed. "So, he'll destroy us and himself if no one…" she trailed off.

"We can't just… he's not a rabid animal!" Namiki started, outraged. Hanami put a gentle hand on her shoulder. Harsh reality came more easily to shinobi children than civilians. In ways, it was better, but in others, it was responsible for so much lost innocence. Hamono stepped forward, face a cold mask.

"He is my little brother," She said quietly, hands twitching as she unconsciously gathered chakra to her palms. "I will do it… in mercy."

* * *

Megumi didn't like hospitals. Who did? So as soon as he could he got out of there. Of course, he was under house arrest -for his own safety of course-, but it didn't really matter when you lived in mansion like the Uzumaki family.

It felt sooooo good to train again. To work out the kinks and to get back his strength. Nothing was better than beating the tar out of a wooden dummy with nothing but your bare fists.

And yet something was missing.

He felt lazy and icky, all safe at home while his friends could be fighting for their lives and his father prepared the defense of Konoha. He felt the occasional feather-light brush of chakra: Hinata was doing constant scans to make sure _he stayed put_ and didn't do anything rash. He sank his chakra-laden fist into the dummy, blowing it apart. He grimaced as bits of stuffing descended like snow. He had to learn control. He hadn't really used his chakra in so long, he was getting rusty. But he wasn't helping anybody, really, by helping himself. So he set out to do what he hated to do the most: reading.

The Hokage Residence also served as the archives for Konohagakure. Official reports, ancient scrolls, anything under the sun that could ever have been loosely classified as "important". He scratched the spot on his shoulder-blade where the seal had been before he broke it with chakra. It itched abominably, but it didn't really hurt and the irritation was well worth the freedom.

He went through thousands of scrolls, scanning their contents with his Byakugan without even bothering to open them. They were all official records about the crops grown in years past and babies born to which families. He puffed out his cheeks and sighed with frustration, sitting down on the floor to think, eyebrows furrowed.

_If I were a scroll filled with something actually interesting that might help this situation, where would I be?_ He pondered. Police Station archives? _No, just more official stuff, and this is completely UNofficial._ Library? _Hah. I'm not going in there. Mom wouldn't let me go there without a guard and I just CAN'T have a guard._ Hyuuga Clan Estate? _That's more like it._

It was but the work of a moment to get permission to go, but Hinata insisted on going with him. It was every boy's dream to have his mother go everywhere with him, even to the clan's ancestral home. He couldn't have been assigned a watcher that wasn't a Hyuuga, as the watcher wouldn't be able to go inside the estate boundaries.

He slipped away from Hinata as soon as they got inside the boundaries. She would know where he went, anyway, with the Byakugan. He made a bee-line straight for the smaller building that held the archives.

When most people think of archives, they think of rows of shelves packed with dusty old tomes that each weighed about the same as a young elephant. There would probably be mouse turds on the shelves because no one bothered to clean in there. Mayhap spider-webs in every place imaginable. But the Hyuuga family archives were nothing of the sort. Sure, there were shelves filled with ancient scrolls and the like, but there were also antique weapons mounted the walls or in glass cases. Each was neatly labeled with an identification card.

Megumi spent a few minutes drooling over a huge three-bladed scythe. Wouldn't he look bad-assed with that in hand! But he didn't dare wield it. He'd heard the history and felt weird knowing that the owner had been buried alive on Nara Clan property. Wait…. Something in his mind clicked. He squinted closely at the card beneath the mounted pike. It was in a hand-writing he recognized as his Uncle Shika's.

_Collected on – _there was the date - b_y Nara Shikamaru. Scythe belonging to one HIDAN, member of the AKATSUKI. Weapon believed to be extremely dangerous, A-Class item._

He remembered very little of his history lessons involving actual people (unless they were about people he knew or was related to, like the Fourth Hokage) but the name "Akatsuki" was familiar. He perused the scrolls, going to the section of records about twenty years ago and older. He scanned them with his Byakugan but found the handwriting cramped and tiny. He scowled and started taking down scrolls. He would have to do it the old-fashioned way.

* * *

Author's note: Ugh. Sorry this chapter is SO lame. I just finished reading Fruits Basket and you know what? NEVER READ SHOUJO MANGA WHEN WRITING FANFICTION FOR A SHOUNEN MANGA. It seriously messes things up.

This story keeps changing. I'm really not sure where this will end up. There's going to be some sort of climactic battle, of course, but the main villain keeps changing. Hikaru, Kurai's evil twin? Orochimaru? Jashin-sama? Has Hidan finally escaped from his earthy prison? IS IT THE AKATSUKI!?!?? Or someone entirely new? –ponders- Ugh, such a pain the ass, un.

NOTE: All author's notes were typed when the chapter they correspond to was written.


	27. Cruel Light

"Megumi?" It was some hours later, the sun having gone down and lanterns lit in the halls. Hanabi poked her head around the door, observing her nephew sitting in the middle of a huge sea of half-opened scrolls. He looked up and blinked pearly eyes.

"Oba-san? Wow, what time is it?" he noticed the dark sky through the window.

"About seven in the evening. What have you gotten up to?" she planted her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at the boy. She didn't want him to know how scared she had been when she'd pulled him out of the bog. She was the imposing aunt, after all. A warrior revered for her skill and beauty.

Megumi grinned at her, seeing right through her illusion but saying nothing. He held up the current scroll he was reading. It was bigger than he was. "Researching. Where's mom?"

"Hinata left earlier. I'll take you home when you're ready. What are you researching?" she picked up a scroll and glanced at it. "These are old records, over twenty years old. What tricks are you planning on?" Megumi shook his head.

"No tricks. It's just…" it was amazing how he could stare right through her without even using the Byakugan. "When I was with the others… the guards talked about 'sacrifices' and how 'master' needed 'sacrifices' to be strong and whole again. I thought I should start looking through the records to see if there's any mention of anyone needing human sacrifices for anything. I saw the scythe on the wall, by the way." He jerked his head in the direction of the weapon. "And it got me thinking. The user, Hidan, sacrificed people, didn't he?"

Hanabi nodded, slowly sitting back on her heels. "Yes. For a deity he called 'Jashin'."

"So! It was as good a place to start as any. Once I knew were to look, it's been easier. And, Oba-san-" he held up a piece of writing. "-your hand-writing is freakishly tiny." She pursed her lips at him in mock annoyance.

"What have you got so far?"

"Well…" he trailed off, peering intently at the records in his lap and rubbing his tired eyes. "I also looked up Jashin. Jashin is a monotheistic god that wants nothing but total loyalty from his subjects. He also demands the sacrifice of people who don't worship him as well. That Hidan guy was a priest of his order. It's a good place to start with this sacrifice stuff. Apparently, whoever took me and the others wanted us for our blood-limits. And they needed ALL of the blood-limits. There was talk of digging up the Kaguya clan because they're 'essence' is needed in the 'ceremony'. But, of course, they only have to contribute essence while they planned to bleed the rest of us like sheep at a slaughter house!" he spat bitterly. It killed him to remember that people he cared about were among the captives. How much time, if any time at all, did they have left?

"But the real pain in the ass is that there's hardly ANYTHING about Jashin here!" he said explosively. Hanabi sighed inwardly. _So much like his father._ "We need an expert."

"And who would be an expert on a blood-thirsty heathen god?" Hanabi wanted to know, her tone getting testy. Megumi fixed her with a serious look.

"I say we dig up Hidan and question him."

* * *

"Raikage-sama, you shouldn't push yourself so much!" War had come to Lightning Country. Skirmishes were fought every day in the land surrounding Kumogakure. The Lightning Lord had threatened to turn his soldiers against the hidden village if they didn't help him against the Earth Lord. Kumo was not a very big village to begin with, but their resources were stretched thin and everyone run ragged. Kurai waved Ami off.

"Shoo. I have things to do. I'm not some delicate flower, Ami." The Raikage said irritably. She was black and blue and dead tired, but she had to make sure her people were all right. She herself had gotten involved in a skirmish right outside of the village gates with conscripts from Earth Country. They'd been equipped with a new technology called "fire arms". Of course, the ninjas had been outnumbered but they had easily killed all of the soldiers at the loss of only three due to gun-shot wounds. Nothing the medic ninjas couldn't patch up, though.

The doors of the small hospital swung open, admitting the Raikage, her over-robes flapping behind her like white bird's wings. Underneath she wore a short black dress trimmed with white over shorts. The white trim was red with blood. She had an ugly black eye but she didn't care. Ami continued to plead and suggest that her commander take a rest, but her entreaties fell upon deaf ears.

"Hey, Manami. You look like shit." Manami Torakiba gave her cousin-in-law a look that could have peeled paint.

"As soon as I get out of here I am KICKING YOUR ASS, Kurai." She said through teeth gritted in pain. She gripped the blankets on the bed with clawed hands as a medi-nin extracted a bullet from her leg. "Right after I get Izumi back."

"Just make sure you _do _get out of here. Hit a major artery, didn't it, Shouta?" the medi-nin nodded distractedly, his hands steady and glowing with chakra.

Kurai made her rounds, trying to keep busy until a ninja, loopy with pain medication, pointed out the black eye and giggled that she looked like half of a panda. She trudged back to her office, intent on scrubbing the blood out of her clothes.

_It's been a month…_ she thought. She'd heard neither hide nor hair about her son. She was glad, though, that they had found Megumi not long ago. Poor thing had been seven-eights dead and nearly drowned from swamp muck. _Or, really, has it been fifteen years?_ _Fifteen years since I last saw you, Katsuo?_ She stopped on the long staircase going up the tower to her office. She leaned against one of the few windows that dotted the staircase. The sun was shining, amazingly. Clouds threatened its presence but it continued to warm and dry the soaked earth of Kumogakure. It gave the land a strange lighting, as if everything had a soft golden halo while the sky remained gray. Sunshafts- _Angels' Ladders_, Kurai remembered- streamed down like liquid happiness.

But the light was both cruel and kind. It was a rare nice day in the midst of war for the village children to play outside in. But it lit up the carnage outside of the village walls. Dried blood that coated the rocky landscape to the west could no longer be written off as blood by someone who did not want to believe. Bodies were fallen logs no more. Pines were scorched free of all needles and bark, blackened with blood and heat from her own lightning-based jutsu.

_Sensei, if you were here, what would you have done?_ That was one thought that always brought the seventh Raikage comfort. Inazuma Torakiba had been aunt, sister, mother, teacher, and commander all in one. Her enemies hated and feared her, the villagers respected her for her skill, but few loved her. Few thought of the now-deceased sixth Raikage as anything but a symbol of untouchable power and a sharp tongue. Many thought her cold and uncaring, detached to all.

But how dispassionate could someone be if they had taken care of a runty orphan who many thought would be better off dead? That scrawny, weak, sickly little thing that would one day be the seventh Raikage and successor to her legacy?

_Sensei, I think I know what you would do._ Kurai straightened, full mouth fixed in a grim expression, amber eyes hard bits of stone. _You would kill every damn bastard that threatened your people. You'd want the best for them and you wouldn't back down no matter what. I hope I can live up to that._

She squared her shoulders, her sharp chin jutting out in an aggressive manner. She couldn't waste time sulking. She had people to lead, spirits to raise, and a home to guard so that it still stood when her son came back. _For kami's sake, I'm a grown woman. I can't just stand here. _A sharp pain alerted her to the fact that she had broken the skin on her palm with her nails. She thoughtfully watched the sky as she licked the blood away and the healing agents in her blood-line whisked away any sign of injury.

She paused just as she was about to turn away. What was that? She squinted, blaming her tired eyes on too much paperwork. _Messenger bird…_ she thought, leaping out of the window. Being about five stories off of the ground, most people, ninja or not, would have splattered against the ground when dropping from such a height. Good thing she didn't drop. Instead, she raced up the outside of the tower, chakra gluing her feet to the white stone.

"Machi! Go get the Raika-" Kurai crested the top of the tower, a huge wooden platform forming the roof with another roof of thatching. "-ge. Message for you, Raikage-sama." The shinobi on duty- genin since all chuunin and jounin were needed in battle- snapped to attention. She nodded and took the offered scroll. A girl cooed over the messenger bird, alone on the many perches that littered the keep as all of the other messenger birds were out.

Kurai ripped open the scroll and scanned it, searching for any sort of hopeful news. It was a boring report about crops in Fire Country. In the bottom corner a messy hand she recognized read, "_Going to dig up the Priest_" written in code. There was the stylized leaf seal with a block of kanji underneath it. The Sixth Hokage's personal seal. The Raikage stuffed the scroll into her sash and ran back down the building.

* * *

Author's Note: I only just recently got the idea of digging up Hidan. I mean… I've got a new appreciation for the Akatsuki. I've always been a HUGE fan of Deidara (who doesn't like a sissy-lookin' bad-boy?) but I never thought much of Hidan. I'm going to have fun with his dialog. XD Creative profanity is just too good a chance to ignore. I'm also getting into DeiSaku. –hides behind desk as pans and tomatoes fly over head- Yeeeek! Two beautiful people together in a noncanon pairing? How could I resist! Also, they are possibly the only two people I can draw without them looking totally stupid-assed. Yeah, so… until next time, un! 


	28. An OverTurned Grave

A/N: If you don't like swearing, DON'T READ THIS CHAPTER. HIDAN IS IN IT AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. But, just so you know, this is a fairly important chapter.

* * *

"I still don't like it. He was troublesome to bury the first time." Shikamaru highly disapproved of digging up old enemies… quite literally.

"We want answers, Shikamaru. This is the best way to go about it." A blonde woman with dark eyes stood in the company of jounin and Hokage. The sun was bright in the early morning. They wanted to have as much day-time as possible as the light shafts lit up the Nara forest.

"I still don't get why you must look like that…" Shikamaru muttered grumpily, eyes boring into the patch of earth surrounded by seals. The woman looked at him. For the briefest moment, her eyes flashed amber but soon turned black again. Her skin was peach-golden, her hair parted so her bangs hung over her left eye.

"I wouldn't bet on Hidan being sane anymore, if he ever was to begin with," she said softly. Her movements were stiff as if a pins-and-needles sensation constantly plagued her. It hurt her to look the way she did. She carried a folded cloak under one arm, red clouds printed on the black material. A ring with the kanji for "South" was on her left ring-finger. "I'm sure he's probably been lost in pleasant dreams somewhere, since his reality is basically hell. Not even Jashin can keep him from that, I bet. The area is sealed off?"

"Yes, Raikage-sama." A jounin said. The blonde sighed and swung the cloak over her shoulders, adjusting a slashed Kumogakure hitai-ate around her waist. She nodded to Shikamaru. "Please release the seal and go outside of the clearing. Don't move a muscle." Grumbling about "troublesome women", Shikamaru formed hand-seals and blasted the sealing scrolls out of existence.

As her former colleague stepped back into the shadows with the others, the disguised Kurai took a deep, shuddering breath. She threw back her shoulders and lifted her chin, a fierce hawkish light appearing in her black eyes, lined heavily with kohl. Her long blonde ponytail swung as she ran forward. "Hidan! Hidan, are you in there?" her voice was harsher, like she'd sustained some sort of throat injury. She drew back her fist and plunged it into the earth. An explosion of dirt, tree-roots, and dust ensued.

"HIDAN!" she hopped down into the crater she'd made. A pale hand poked out of the dirt at the bottom of the crater. Shikamaru sucked in a deep breath, and Naruto began to gnaw on his lip. This was crucial that she somehow make him believe that not much time had passed so he would tell her all he knew. None of the jounin present knew exactly_how_ she would do so, but Kurai was clever. She'd do it.

Carefully, she nudged the pale hand with her foot, nails on both her hands and feet painted deep purple. When the hand didn't respond, she set to work digging with suddenly lengthened claws. She exposed an arm, then the head and torso of a pale-haired man in a cloak identical to hers. He blinked at her dazedly. Then, his face contorted with rage. "HEATHENS!" he roared trying to lunge at her but she jerked away. "FUCKING HEATHENS! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

"Eh? Hidan? Stop spouting like a fool. It's Hikaru." His skin was a permanent brownish-gray from the constant, intense darkness of twenty-two years buried alive. He blinked at her; groping for a scythe he didn't carry anymore.

"_Fucking__…_not Deidara?" the girl, Hikaru, blew her bangs out of her face impatiently. Obviously he Hidan had her confused with another blonde side-part-and-ponytail.

"No, douchebag. It's Hikaru Torakiba, remember? Yeesh. Now get your lazy ass outta there. We've got Jinchuuriku to get!"

"If you'd move your fucking lazy heathen ass to help me, damn it! How the fuck am I gonna get outta here? Where the fuck've you been, anyway? How long've I been in this shit-hole?"

_He doesn't know how much time has passed. _Kurai realized. _Well, why should he? It's pitch-black underground and he can't die._ "I dunno. Kakuzu reported back without you." Hidan's face purpled with rage.

"That fucking bag of shit! He left without me?" Hikaru shrugged.

"You wanna take it up with _him?_"

"I'm going to sacrifice his fucking ass to Jashin-sama. How long have I been stuck here?" the girl stared at the man.

"Huh? Not long. Why do you ask?"

"You look _older._"

Naruto cursed silently. Of course! It'd been twenty-two years since Hidan had seen anyone. Now, Kurai may look ageless, but there was definitely some difference between fifteen and thirty-seven.

"What the hell are you talking about? It's only been… a week or whatever?" there was the faintest flicker of chakra as the genjutsu changed ever so slightly, taking away some of the curves from her body to make it more girlish and smoothing worry-lines from her face. Hidan looked suspicious and even crazier than usual.

"Where's my scythe?"

"Doubtless that stupid Shikamaru guy took it." Hidan cursed colorfully, struggling to free his legs from the earth. Kurai had no intention of helping him. "Oh, yeah, and I think my sister was there or something. I wanna get rid of that stupid bitch. Now how would I go about sacrificing her to Jashin?"

Hidan looked like he had been told that Christmas was coming early that year… if he hadn't thought of Christmas as a freakishly heathen holiday. "A sacrifice to lord Jashin? Fuck yeah!"

"Just tell me how to do it," she said impatiently. _His enthusiasm would be almost cute if it wasn't so creepy. Damn religious lunatics._ He seemed to forget all about his imprisonment and that he wasn't even all the way out of the ground again. That and he was rank with "heathen dirt" clinging to his skin. He chattered and swore and exclaimed over Jashin; about how he was the only god and should be the only god and how people didn't appreciate how powerful he was. He went on and on until it was quite obvious that he'd spent his time praying and thinking about Jashin during those twenty-two years of darkness and constant dying and living again.

He talked on and on about the different kinds of sacrifices and how you had to purify yourself and the "heathen" to get maximum praise and credit from Jashin. Kurai hoped someone was taking notes and she nodded and tried to look excited at the thought of her "damned twin's" blood all of the place and her soul given to some violent god. "And that's about what you fucking gotta do to sacrifice that damn bitch." He finished. Kurai blinked.

"That's it?"

"Damn straight. You gotta wash all that shit off of your body so you can even hope of-" he was repeating himself. Again. Well, he had it comin'….

"Thanks ever so much," she said, ripping off her cloak and letting the genjutsu fall. Hidan's mouth fell open.

"What the shit? You're that fucking Torakiba bitch! I'm gonna sacrifice your fucking heathen ass to Jashin-sama!"

"Shove it," she snarled. "You know what? You've been here for twenty-two years. Kakuzu's dead. Deidara's dead. I don't know what the hell happened to your other little friends but I bet they're ALL DEAD." She smiled brightly at him, wielding a streak of lightning and cleaving his upper-body in half. "Good night."

The others rushed from their hiding places to cover the site back up again, performing jutsu upon jutsu to seal the area. "That was… enlightening." Shikamaru said, looking a little pale.

"For a second I thought you were going to say 'troublesome'," Naruto said, watching Hidan's grave mound grow higher.

"That too."

Kurai wiped sweat from her brow. She hadn't realized she was trembling before. She took of the Akatsuki ring and slashed forehead-protector, rolling them up in the cloak and folding it into a small bundle. She felt filthy; contaminated from having even _said_her dead twin's name. The cloak still had her scent clinging to it even after fifteen years. The headband, the ring… they all reminded her so much of her double that had also been her opposite. Just looking in the _mirror_brought back memories of the face that was so much like hers.

"Umm… Raikage-sama? Are you all right?" the respectful voice made her startle and she turned around to see a familiar face, tousled brown hair hidden beneath the hitai-ate he wore as a beanie.

"Oh. Saruo-kun," she said, relieved. For a second she'd been convinced she'd been living in the past. Just _acting_as if the last twenty-two years hadn't happened had seriously messed with her internal clock. "I'm all right. What about you?" she could see that Saruo's mouth was a thin white line, his reddish brown eyes flinty. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jounin flak vest.

"I'm fine," he said slowly. After all, he'd just seen the man who had killed his father before he was born. And that man was still alive, still young, and still a nasty enemy. Kurai patted him on the shoulder as she would her own son.

"It's sealed, Hokage-sama!" a jounin called. Naruto nodded and bowed mockingly to his female colleague.

"After you, Raikage-sama?" he got a knee somewhere unpleasant for his troubles and the barely contained sniggers of the ninjas present.

* * *

Author's note: yeeeeeeeeeeeeeek. –fangirl squeal- I'm sorry. –is shamed- DeiSaku. It's eating my brain. –is a zombie- And it's not totally gross because they're not that different in age. Oooooh, SHOCKER! SOMETHING ALMOST LEGAL IN FANDOM:O So… Hidan. Yeah. Lunatic to the end, ne? I'm also working on a humor fic at the moment. The Akatsuki get a housekeeper! DX Oh noes! Konan is jealous._She _should be the light of their lives, the angel of the house, ne? There is room for only ONE woman in the Akatsuki… right? 


	29. In The Lion's Den

_"You killed them," she snarled, her voice grating out around clenched fangs. She'd never hated_

_anyone so much in her entire life. It consumed her, forcing out all reason. "And for what? Revenge? Did you hate them?"_

"_Oh no, sister dear," a blonde woman purred. She seemed totally unconcerned with her twin standing there in a pool of her own blood. She had a person, a man, but the hair. He was dead and dried blood caked his forehead-protector, engraved with Kumogakure's symbol. The blonde woman, her eyes a shining, sinister black, plunged her hand into his chest to extract his heart. It twitched in her claws. "I killed them because I hate YOU. You took my power, my life… and I'll do it again." The man's face was Katsuo's. A second later, his stone-colored hair turned coal-black and his eyes a deep Torakiba amber. It was Katsuro._

She sat up straight, hand clamped over her mouth so that she wouldn't scream. Her heart thundered in her chest as if it were trying to break free of her ribcage. She'd fallen asleep at her desk again and knocked over a pot of ink as she fought to get out of the over-sized office-chair. She tore out of the office and up to the Message Nest. It was one of those rare times when a jounin was on duty. "I need the fastest birds to get to Konoha and Suna," she panted. "Hikaru is back."

* * *

They were close to their destination, she could _feel_it. Her proverbial hackles were on end. In Katsuro's case, he didn't have _proverbial_ hackles like Suzume. He'd been growing more and more animalistic lately, and it was starting to freak her out. The same thing with Tsubasa, too. Just the way he'd cock his head to the side when someone spoke, the weird jerky movement of his walking, and just his posture reminded her forcibly of some grounded pigeon. She wasn't doing so well, either. Her eyes itched constantly and she got endless head-aches. Standing too close to Kotone gave her heat rash, being within a foot of Haku made her skin numb, and going anywhere near Haruki made her angry and antsy. And Kameyo… she could swear that the ground was talking to her if she went too close to the Iwagakure girl.

The land was only slightly marshy, now, and was littered with rocks. Kameyo sniffed the air appreciatively. "It smells more like home," he sighed. "How long's it been, eh?"

"Too long." Katsuro growled. Quite literally, _growled._"Damn seal… itches like crazy."

"But they're wearing off," Kotone added. Her lips were cracked and bled whenever she spoke. Her eyes were permanently glassy with some kind of inner fever and her once gloriously white hair had the consistency of straw. She often walked arm in arm with Haku, balancing each other out as his lips were blue with cold and his teeth chattered constantly.

They'd been allowed to rest and apparently were waiting for something. The guards were tense and circulated around the small group. "I want… a steak." Katsuro said into his knees, drawn up to his chin. "_Rare."_

"Why wait for a steak?" Haruki wanted to know. "Just eat Sora."

"Please stop calling me that," Tsubasa said, too tired to be irritated. "And if you try anything, Torakiba, you'll find a sharp talon- damn, _fist_ in your rumbling gut."

"I'm_starving,_" Katsuro sighed. In fact, he did look a bit paler and peakier than the rest. His dietary requirements, even when mostly human, centered around the red and salty. He stared hungrily at the back of one of the guards. "If I wasn't sure that they would taste so foul, I'd try one of them."

"That's barbaric!" Tsubasa hissed.

"I agree with Katsuro," Suzume murmured, leaning against Haruki even though it made her irritated. He had his fore-arm draped over his eyes, shutting out the bright moonlight. She could feel his muscles twitching spasmodically, almost as if something alive infested them. "I'd tear off their heads and play ten-pins with them."

"I call first roll," Haruki chuckled wearily. Suzume always kept one eye on him. He was still Haruki, but… twisted, somehow. He'd let them in on the plan and she couldn't wait to get away but couldn't help but feel something wasn't right. She felt they were missing some key point but couldn't tell what it was.

Finally, one of the guards came out of the night. "Get them up!" she hissed, indicating the captives. "Master's ready. Into the cave, let's go!"

"Judgment is yours. We're going in," Haruki mouthed. They all took up their chains and followed into the blackness that was night.

* * *

"They're going in," Hamono whispered, having read her little brother's lips. "On guard, everyone. We follow. Stealth, no chakra." There were a number of nods of ascent but a sudden squeal from Asuka. They all turned to look at her.

"Can't you be quiet?" Hanami wanted to know, but Asuka pointed to the pug perched on her thigh.

"It's got weird eyes."

"It's wearing… a vest." Miho stated.

"Is it safe?" Izumi wondered while Jun went forward to sniff it. When he fathomed a growl, the other dog spun about.

"Paws off!" it yapped.

"No way… it's one of Kakashi's!" Namiki whispered in awe.

"Message for you kids," he barked again. Kazuki held out his hand and the dog spat a scroll into his palm, along with a lot of dog slobber, and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Ewwww…" Koga said. Yuuta nodded in agreement. Kazuki, making a disgusted face, handed the scroll to Izumi, his eyes clearly saying, "At least _you_ can read it aloud."

Izumi broke the seal, hands trembling. She smoothed the paper out and held it under a shaft of moonlight that trickled through the canopy of trees. Haruki-bunny, perched on her shoulder, leaned forward to get a better look. Slowly, she began to read.

"If this gets to you, assume that you are alive and that you are in big trouble when you get back." Miho made a face. "Megumi's fine. Dug up H in Nara Forest. Kidnapper apparently cultist. R Kage says H Torakiba is culprit. Sacrifice hearts of k-g users to god(s) for eternal life and great power. Attempted 15 yrs ago by same on K Fukamori and Ina. Torakiba. STAY HIDDEN. DON'T MOVE. ANBU& Jounin Teams already on way.

-Kakashi"

"Stay hidden… don't move…" Namiki murmured.

"I highly doubt that we are going to obey those commands," Yuuta observed. Asuka chuckled.

"They couldn't possibly know how close we are," Miho said reasonably. "So that basically nullifies the last few bits."

"But… who's H Torakiba?" Koga demanded, taking the scroll from Izumi and scanning it.

"It must be… but it _can't_, she died years ago… Hikaru Torakiba, Oba-san's twin." Izumi said tensely, hands clenching into fists. "It must be. I don't think Obaa-san could have done it. Her name starts with 'H', but Hikaru is FULLY capable of it. She was an S-Class criminal when they finally found out what she was doing. They thought she was dead but she ended joining Atsu… Akitsu… what's that old group?"

"Akatsuki?" Hanami offered. Izumi snapped her fingers.

"Yeah! Akatsuki! She was with the Akatsuki for a bit then we THOUGHT Oba-san killed her. There was proof and everything."

"You can't just kill your twin," Asuka said, unusually soft. She exchanged smiles with Kazuki. "No matter what they do, they're still a part of you."

"Then who's K Fukamori and Ina Torakiba?" Hamono was reading through the parchment with her Byakugan.

"Inazuma Torakiba was my dad's aunt," Izumi said.

"And the Rokudaime Raikage," Yuuta added. "Apparently, she got her name for her lightning-based attacks."

_"Katsuo Fukamori was our uncle but he was killed before we were born,_" Kazuki signed. "_And he's Katsuro's dad._"

"He's Katsuro's _dad_? I didn't know that!" Asuka cried, shocked. They all made shushing noises at her. "When did he tell you that?"

"_It's kind of obvious,_" Kazuki signed impatiently. "_They look pretty much the same, for starters. Plus when I asked he told me."_

"He never told _me,"_ Asuka scoffed. "I always thought his dad was some missing ninja or whatever." Kazuki smacked her upside the head and they subsided into a silent scuffle.

* * *

The first thing they noticed was the darkness. Second, the smell. It was like rotting meat, all cloying sweetness and a stench you could almost taste. Kameyo was instantly sick, but no one noticed. Suzume's eyes watered and she struggled to breathe through her mouth. Tsubasa coughed and hacked as if the scent was a physical thing that was tearing at his lungs. "Holy _crap_," Haruki whispered. "What the hell _is_ that?"

"Corpse," Kotone croaked. "It's corpse stench."

"No, you think?" Katsuro wretched. "It's like the friggin' coast during whaling season, but in the summer!"

The guards leading them in suddenly turned tail and ran out of the mouth of the cave, dodging around stalagmites. Suzume started to lunge after them but Haku's grip on the collar of her shirt saved her from running face-first into a wall of spikes. The cave mouth was sealed, leaving them in utter darkness.

"Is everyone all right?" there was a flicker and a minute flame appeared, illuminating Kotone's face as it danced in the palm of her hand. "Nii-chan, a little help?"

"I'm working at it." A ring of tiny ice-mirrors encircled the minuscule fire, reflecting and rebounding the light so that it shone like a light-bulb. They were immediately sorry that they could see what was around them.

"It's times like these that I wish that life a RESTART button," Kameyo squeaked. Haruki bent down to scratch at the floor with a fingernail.

"Holy-" what he was about to say was lost in a shriek that Suzume hadn't meant to let out. They all looked at her, startled. Her Sharingan flickered on and off as she stared in horror all around them.

"The whole place is painted with _blood_," she whispered. "Blood on the ceiling, on the walls, on the _floor-_" she stopped as someone clapped a hand over her mouth. She wanted to shriek at the coldness but a familiar voice said, "Hush, Suzume-san. Kotone-chan?"

"Katon Karyuu Endan!" Kotone's white fingers glowed dimly as they flicked through a series of hand-signs and she blew a thin stream of fire all around them. It hit the dried fluids on the floor and blazed into life with a small cry of pain from Kotone. Her knees gave out and burns wrapped around all of her visible skin.

"Sorry… I forgot." Haku muttered, turning red as he helped his friend back to her feet.

"No problem," Kotone wheezed. "Nothing to worry abo-"

"The stones say someone's close!" Kameyo whispered suddenly. "The blood is- AAAAAGH!"

"Damn," Tsubasa grumbled, bobbing his head and staring around at what had grabbed the Iwagakure girl.

A man stood there, eyes as black and blank as a doll's but lacking any sort of button-like shine. He hefted Kameyo easily by the throat, watching them impassively. His stone-colored hair was flecked with dried blood. The blonde fought and gasped, swearing and trying to dig her nails into the thick, quilted fabric of the man's jacket.

Haruki immediately dashed forward, giving up all hopes of using hand-signs and using just Taijutsu. But the man was jounin level at least. He had Haruki in his other hand by the shirt-collar. The others spread out, ready for a fight. "C'mon, Katsuro! What's the matter with you?" Suzume cried. But Katsuro just stood, staring up at the man's face. _His_ face.

"D…._dad_?"

* * *

Author's Note: DUNDUNDUUUUUUN!!! Hahahah. I love you guys. "Stone-colored hair", hello! You should've figured it out before I gave it away. And Hikaru… well let's just say that she's a real piece of work, oki? And I needed to torture Hidan just a liiiiiittle bit more. He's such a potty mouth. But we love him anyway, ne? I had writer's block for a few weeks at the end of this chapter and am trying to make the chapters longer so I don't clog your inboxes incessantly. Ja, matane!

OH MY GOD IT'S ALMOST THE END. SIX MORE CHAPTERS. I'll prolly post them all today. DX


	30. Dear Diary, today I will die again

"Whaddya mean, 'DAD'?" Tsubasa cried shrilly. "He's not really-"

"Who's to say, Cloud-walker?" out of the flickering shadows cast by Kotone's ring of flames, a woman sauntered. She was beautiful, her body perfectly curved beneath a short kimono of black and white leggings. Her golden bangs were parted to the left side and the rest in a high ponytail. She wore a slashed Kumogakure hitai-ate around her waist. She cocked her head at the genin, an animal-like curiosity to her finely carved face and black eyes that were almost inhumanly bright.

"Who are you?" Suzume choked around the chakra that had suddenly bloomed in the air, making it hard to breathe. The woman nodded to the man, and he dropped both Kameyo and Haruki.

"I was once part of a clan, just like you, Suzume-chan," the woman said, gracefully pacing within the ring of fire. "A very small, but very powerful clan. I grew up in a village, just like all of you. I was a genin once, then a chuunin, until I left when my _sister_betrayed me." She stopped, eyes fixed on Katsuro. Barely contained hate made her beautiful face ugly. "_Your mother, _I believe, Katsuro-kun."

"You, Haruki-kun-" she glared at the Hyuuga and he stared back at her, completely speechless for the first time in his life. "-both of your parents helped her. As well as yours, Suzume-chan. You people… you're just so happy living that legacy of power that you don't even begin to think of how they _got _that power. The people who suffered just so those people could gain a reputation. And then _they _reap the benefits while you are left to scrounge what's left over if you're _lucky_."

"We didn't do a thing to you!" Haku cried, outraged. He blushed a dark red with anger, still supporting Kotone. "We've never spoken to you, never heard of you… we've never even seen you before!"

"Hush, Haku," Kotone said softly, standing on her own. She rubbed the back of her neck and smiled at their blonde tormentor. "I know how people have gotten power at the expense of others. I know that very well. But you seemed to have deserved it more than others. I was killed removing a person that was a danger to my village. I believe you remember Kisame Hoshigaki?"

The power of the seals was breaking from such close contact with their creator. Kotone stepped forward, drawing kunai of fire out of the air. In half a moment she was nose to nose with the woman, still smiling. "Of course you would remember him, _Hikaru Torakiba._ Your former partner slammed his fist through my chest 'avenging' _his_former partner. Then, like the conniving vulture you are, you took his place as one of the Akatsuki!" She struck like a viper, hand flashing as she let go of the kunai.

But a hand caught her by the hair and viciously yanked her head back, brutally slicing her throat with a single slash. Her flames flashed brilliantly once, and then left the cave in utter darkness. The last thing they illuminated was the slightly bemused look on her face; how her blue eyes widened with surprise and her mouth formed a perfect 'o' while not a sound escaped her lips.

There followed a moment of nearly completely silence, punctuated only by sharply drawn breath. The moment after that was shattered by that self-same inhalation, transformed into a scream of such horror and misery that the very ground trembled. _"KOTOOONEEEE!"_

What came after could only be described as ferocious chaos performed in perfect blackness. The captives fought valiantly though blind in the dark, wreaking havoc as the seals crumbled. "BACK UP!" Haruki roared, laying about with his fists as the chakra used to perform Jyuuken lit the gloom. Other cronies of Hikaru's pulled themselves out of the very walls, each one possessing the same completely black, dull doll's eyes.

Flashes of chakra pierced the darkness as the genin resisted all efforts to be turned into sacrificial victims. Through the chaos, Haku's eyes remained fixed on Hikaru as she effortlessly directed her living corpses into battle. She had Kotone's body by the front of her yukata, drawing a circle of chakra with a finger suddenly turned into a claw. She struck inside that circle, ripping out the still-warm heart…and devoured it. She cavalierly dropped the body and blocked Haku's ferocious attack, blood dripping from the corners of her mouth.

"Hello, little boy," she crooned, breaking the fingers of his left hand with a careless flick. "Did I kill someone you loved?"

"Bitch!" he snarled. His fingers flashed almost faster than the eye could follow, forming hand-seals with his only good hand. "SENSATSU SUISHOU-" As if he hated himself for doing it, he kicked at the pool of blood beneath his best friend's body, sending it up in great showers. "-CHI HENKEI!" Thousands of bloody needles formed and shrieked as they split the air in their speed towards the enemy. They collided as she burst into smoke, a mere bunshin.

* * *

"I can't get in!" Namiki screamed with frustration, fruitlessly beating her fists against the impenetrable stone. "We've tried jutsu after a jutsu, but it doesn't budge!" Hamono had her eyes trained on the carnage within, horror showing on her usually impassive face.

"We've got to think of something, fast! They're getting killed in there!" Hanami dragged her sister away, mouth set in a grim line as she ripped open her giant scroll.

"Kuchiyose-" she leapt into the air, baring the full interior of her scroll. "-TOBIDOUGU!"

Shuriken and kunai flew in a lethal barrage, ricocheting back off of the rocks at the ninjas as they dove for cover. "Nice one." Koga said sarcastically. Jun gave voice to a thin howl of agreement. Hanami rewound her scroll, cursing the air blue.

"It's strengthened by something other than pure stone. There's chakra in it," Miho remarked, rapping her fingers against it. "It can only be opened from the inside."

"Perhaps you haven't heard me quite right," Hamono snarled. "They are_dying _in there."

"We know that, Hyuuga-san," Izumi said quietly. "But one cannot think under pressure. If we acknowledge such a thing, then we shall break into pieces. You do not know that, thinking us uncaring, as you are unused to real emotion in general."

"What did you just say?" Hamono hissed.

"Shut up!" Hanami stared through the rock with her one Byakugan eye. "Back up."

"What?" Asuka demanded. "Who are you giving the or-" Kazuki grabbed her and Yuuta and forced them to the ground, the others doing the same as the once-blocked entrance was blasted outwards, a furious Suzume poised with her fist outstretched on the other side. Her knuckles were bleeding and, quite frankly, she looked like shit, but for a few moments everyone just stared in stunned silence.

"Are you coming?" Suzume's voice was reaching its hysterical octave, her whole body trembling.

"Move aside!" Hamono shouted, ducking her head and streaking through the opening, the others close behind. Izumi shrieked like a banshee, Asuka, Namiki, and Miho letting forth similar battle-cries as they barreled into the gloom with no thoughts of what would happen to themselves and unaware of reinforcements being not far off.

* * *

Author's Note: Yo! Sorry, I killed Kotone again. (-isn't really sorry-) So, that whole "Sensatsu Suishou: Chi Henkai" thing? It's Haku's normal Sensatsu Suishou, but "Chi Henkei" means "blood variation" or "blood version". If he can do that with water, why not with blood? I thought it would add a rather dark air to the scene. And Suzume and can break things like her mother. :D She's not as powerful as Sakura yet, but she's working at it. And I failed miserably at trying to make this chapter longer, but it's the natural break here. Byezorz. 


	31. He who dies young is loved by the gods

I hated war. Why? Because it was a waste. A waste of supplies, a waste of emotion, a waste of life. Hardly anything good every happened because of war. In the end, the winners would forget all of their own who died and the losers would only sing about how valiantly they fought and how dreadfully the enemy cheated. Both sides wouldn't recall why they fought or why they had hated each other in the first place. The wouldn't care about those who neither won nor lost; those caught in the middle because they agreed with neither side and had no choice in the matter.

That was where I stood. In the middle like a sarden fat pig walking in the open through a village filled with starving, desperate people.

At the moment, I was lying in a ditch with my belly plastered to the noxious mud at the bottom. I had a wicked-looking crossbow in one hand a nearly-empty quiver slung over my shoulder. Four other shinobi were with me, peering through the misty dawn in hopes of seeing the enemy. They were all filthy, hungry, damnably sore, and had already had serious losses to their numbers. The village, already small, had once contained two-thousand people. That was eight hundred shinobi, including the academy students, and twelve hundred civilians. Now, it was down to six hundred shinobi and only two hundred of those were able to fight and one thousand civilians, mostly evacuated save for some volunteer medics and the civilian law-keeping force.

"Ano… Raikage-sama?" I didn't recognize the young man next to me, but she didn't expect to. We were all covered in mud, blood, and other organic substances.

"There's no 'Raikage-sama' here, kid. We're all fighting for our home."

"Then… Rai-san?" It could've been short for 'Kurai' or 'Raikage', but I didn't mind. Whatever made the others comfortable. "I have a question."

"Then question away."

"Rai-san, why are we fighting?" it was already quiet in our trench, but the stillness that his question set off was almost enough to shatter the eardrums.

"Why are we fighting?"

"Yes, Rai-san. How come we're getting killed?" the others in the trench- veterans by the hardened looks in their eyes- turned to stare at me, waiting for an answer.

I wet my suddenly try lips, trying to think of a way to evade the question, but found none. Instead, gazed at him and he began to fidget nervously. "You're a ninja, yes?" I asked.

"Yes, Raikeg-sa-… Rai-san."

"What level of ninja are you, then?"

"Chuunin, ma'am. Have been for two years."

"Then why do you ask why we fight? Did you ask anyone before when you went on missions? Those usually involve killing people and getting killed."

He ran fingers apprehensively through his hair. I could just barely tell that it was strawberry blonde under all the muck. It struck me as odd that I couldn't quite remember his name. I'd made a point to know all of the people under my command. "Rai-san…" he began. "When we do missions, we do it for money to keep our village prosperous and so we have enough funding to keep our families safe. But _now_ we're fighting because the lord of our country angered the lord of another country and decided to settle it in a war that we don't exactly agree with. Don't the Iwa ninjas agree?"

"The Earth Lord is winning," a woman grumbled from further down the trench, sewing up a cut in her leg with a needle, thread, and no pain-killer. "The Iwa ninjas do not agree. They don't care because they are convinced that victory shall be theirs. Besides, they are more powerful than Kumo with numbers on their side."

"And they're a bunch of fucking lazy-asses," a jounin grumbled, a telescope to his eye as he scanned the surrounding land. What few pine trees were left were blackened from fire, leaving the ground bare save for the odd big rock. "Do _you_ see many shinobi wearing the Iwagakure Hitai-ate? No. They're all safe back at their village with only one or two squads sent here as the clean-up crew. It's insulting that we're getting beaten by conscripts and those damn fire-arms."

"But why are we still fighting?" the chuunin pressed. I noticed that his eyes were glass-green and he still had the righteous anger of youth. He reminded me of Katsuro and Izumi, and my heart hurt.

"Because if we don't, the Lightning Lord will cut our funding," I growled, blinking up at the sky as it began to rain again.

"So… we're fighting for money?" his voice was small, almost as if he didn't want to believe it.

"Well, y-" the callous woman at the end began to say but I interrupted her.

"Kid, what about your family? Where are they?" He blinked and looked confused at my sudden question.

"My father's a medic ninja and my mother died at the start of the war. I don't know where my brother and sister are." He didn't sound too sad about it, though. I gathered that one thing he'd learned, and learned well, was that you couldn't focus on anything _but_war _during_ war.

"Well, you're fighting for your family. We all are. If the Lightning Lord cuts our funding, where does that leave us? Open to attack and likely to starve. Kumogakure will fall if we do not fight – maybe even when we _do_ fight- so we're the only ones keeping our home safe. If the people of Kumo don't keep Kumo going, who will? One _more_ day of fighting means one _less _day of fighting and getting our stupid asses killed. Every day we get closer to the end, whatever that is. We're fighting to keep our homes and families safe. Is that good enough for you, kid?"

The chuunin nodded, looking thoughtful. "Thank you, Rai-san. It makes sense."

"Hoi! Kurai! FIRE IN THE HOLE!" On reflex I leapt high, high into the air, my legs charged with chakra. I could see the others rising all around me, looking panicked as something roughly the sise of an apple rolled into the ditch where we had taken refuge. A breath later, the whole world went orange.

That little apple-thing had held some sort of explosive charge. I could smell the stink of that new "gun-powder". The heat hit us like a physical thing, flinging us wide. I could see the ground coming up fast when I started to fall and instantly performed an earth jutsu, hitting the mud and just kept going down. It was a good hour before I crept back to the surface, spitting out muck.

"Report!" I croaked, feeling no nearby enemies.

"Saki, here!" the woman said, melting out of a blackened tree-stump.

"Korigawa here."

"And Maeda." The jounin with the scope and a younger jounin with a beard both peeled themselves from the ground.

"Hey… where's the kid?" the bearded jounin wondered.

* * *

I ran to the ditch, or what was left of it. The mud had been blown up then hardened into spikes. A blackened corpse lay in the bottom where the chuunin had been. "Idiot," the woman spat, but it was half-hearted. I hopped down, ash crumbling beneath my feet. I rummaged around, refusing to look at the corpse, before I unearthed the little zippered wallet that al the shinobi were equipped with. It was fire-proof, water-proof, and explosion-proof. I opened it, leafing through notes reminding the owner to do the laundry or pick up dinner on Thursday. I finally came to his I.D. and pulled it out, holding it up so that the rain washed by bloody fingerprints from it.

"Uotani Yuuki," I read aloud. The others didn't speak, giving him a moment of silence. He was eighteen. What was he doing in war, at eighteen years old? His identification photo was there as well, showing what he looked like without the grime. He seemed to have been in the middle of a sneeze when the picture had been taken, his face contorted and his eyes asymmetrically open. Of course. How could I have forgotten who he was? He was the elder brother to Asuka and Kazuki Uotani, my own son's team-mates. I'd been in the ANBU when he'd been a child. I faintly remembered being patched up once or twice by a man with his same red hair, exclaiming over the antics of his toddler son while I sat, impassive and moody, a kunoichi who just wanted to get back to her work. Then it struck me. That boy was my_nephew_, and I'd never really known him. His mother was Natsuko Fukamori, Katsuo's sister. I sighed, winded.

"I'm sorry," I said to his identification picture. I paused for a few minutes as the rain slowly washing away the worst of the sludge and blood. I zipped his wallet closed and clapped my hands together, bowing my head. The others of my command did the same. "Please rest in peaceful harmony," I could hear three other voices repeating the ritual wish.

"Where to next, Kashira?" Kashira: chief. That's what I was and I had to remember to act as such.

"Back to the village and we'll make plans there. The Rock conscripts have a new sort of weapon and we have to take that into account. Any objections? There weren't any. "Good. Ano, Maeda, if you could-" the bearded jounin didn't answer, simply forming hand-signs. The ground rumbled and the ditch was no more. Saki placed a few rocks on where the trench had been. "Let's all remember him and that we could have _been _him. Come on, people. Let's go home."

* * *

Author's note: this chapter focuses on Kumogakure's predicament. I didn't realize that Yuuki was Kurai's nephew until she did. I was thinking, "O rly? Hly crp that's sad." Wow. I forgot. I was just thinking that I couldn't make him some anonymous rookie of war and so I gave him a name and a family that we already know about. The same thing for Katsuo. When I made him Asuka's and Kazuki's deceased uncle, I wanted him to have some tie what we already know. I am also inspired by WalkingMaelstrom's fanfiction on dA. It is basically Naruto, but set during WWII! It's really interesting. I love it. Maelstrom-san puts such a good light on war, giving it no candy-coating but not bashing it either. Simply showing it as was it is: something extremely unpleasant but sometimes necessary.

And Kurai's views are not necessarily mine.


	32. The Youthfulness of Battle

The first thing he noticed going wrong were his attacks. He put way too much power behind the Jyuuken and he knew he was going to exhaust himself if he didn't stop.

The thing was; he _couldn't_ stop.

He couldn't stop slashing and punching and viciously chopping. He closed chakra holes almost faster than he could blink, being able to see the inner coil system and his enemies' attacks before they even happened, just by the way chakra was gathered in the body. But there was just something undeniably wrong with him and with his opponents, he could tell. The enemy all had the same blank black eyes and expressionless face. They had all the patterns of a living person, save for their eyes and their lack of emotion. He could sense that it wasn't that they didn't show emotion, it was that they _couldn't_. And that's what really pissed him off. He knew Hikaru had done something to them. He could see her chakra in all of her minions. From what he knew of Katsuro, he knew that the older boy never passed up a fight, and yet he was pleading with the man that had held Kameyo by the throat. He ducked the ill-wished attacks and did everything in his power to make sure that he did not harm the man he believed to be his father.

How could any monster do that? Turning a man against his son? How had the fates allowed such a person to keep on living? That person had made living puppets of her victims, giving them some sort of perverse form of life to accomplish her own ends. She'd meant to do the same thing to him and his friends as well, he knew. She'd already done something of the kind with that girl, Kotone. Sure, Kotone hadn't moved yet as a puppet but that woman had eaten her _heart_.

He snarled, leaving his opponent helpless with a flurry of swift yet soft punches. He'd know the Kirigakure girl for only a short time, but he knew her to be kind and gentle. It almost hurt him physically to watch her body be completely disregarded in the scuffle while her team-mate was out for vengeance.

He couldn't stand the injustice of it all. How come good people like Kotone had to die while bad people like Hikaru had to live? WHY? Why did he and his friends have to become part of some evil plot for more puppets and power, snatched from their beds and made to endure such torture? _She killed Megumi._ He'd forgotten about that. She hadn't done it directly, but Megumi had been killed in her name and his body slung into a swamp with no proper burial, his soul left to wander the earth forever without piece.

And that's when he snapped.

* * *

"Please, dad, _please,_" he begged, ducking a Taijutsu move that would've taken off his head. He was weak from malnourishment and his chakra was going haywire from disuse. He didn't want to hurt the man before him, so much like him. He knew, deep in his gut, that that man was his father. He could see himself in the line of his jaw, in how his hair flopped over his forehead-protector, though a different color. He saw how they had the same lean, flexible build and how their techniques weren't much different, save that Katsuro had the Torakiba claws at his disposal.

"C'mon, you have to remember!" then he nearly smacked himself for his stupidity. Of _course_ he wouldn't remember! _You died before I was born, _he thought. _Mom said Hikaru killed you, along with Inazuma-sensei. Did she lie? Or did Mom never know what had happened to your bodies?_ "My name's Katsuro Torakiba!" _Well, start from the beginning. _"My mother is-" he dispersed a strangling illusion. "-Kurai Torakiba! You knew her! You loved her! And my father was Katsuo Fukamori. YOU are Katsuo Fukamori. You're my father and _you're trying to kill m-­_" he flew across the cavern and slammed into the rock wall, sliding down to lie like a rag-doll on the floor. He could feel the reverberations of the chaotic combat through the rocks.

He felt consciousness slipping away and wondered if he would even wake up again when he felt a cool hand checking the pulse at his throat then haul him up into a sitting position. Something small and round was forced past his jaws and he swallowed. Immediately, he was wide-awake and nearly quivering with energy. "Kazuki!" he gasped. His team-mate gave him a sarcastic salute, as if to say, "No _shit,_ Sherlock."

"Katsuro! Get off your lazy ass! C'mon!" two other people grabbed his arms and dragged him to his feet.

"Izumi, does Ji-san (A/N: uncle) know you're here?" he asked his younger cousin. Izumi just slapped him lightly.

"By now he prolly does. He-" she said something extremely explicit. "Is that AUNT HIKARU?" through the chaos she watched the blonde woman facing off with a long-haired brunette boy who had the look of a savage falcon about him, all ferocity and speed.

"Yep." Katsuro answered, unusually brief.

"She's in charge?"

"Ja, soo desu."

"She dies and we're safe?"

"Pretty much."

"… damn."

* * *

"Look out!" Hamono spotted a hail of kunai with her active Byakugan, aimed straight for her and a boy who she recognized as the one they called Tsubasa. Unsure if it would work or not, she ordered, "Hold on to me!" Tsubasa looked alarmed as the slightly older girl clamped a hand down on his shoulder and jerked him towards her. They collided with more force than Hamono had counted on, not knowing that the members of the Tsubasa clan possessed hollow bones. It didn't matter, though, as she allowed the momentum to spin them around. "HAKKESHOU KAITEN!" The nearby human puppets were knocked flying, the kunai dispersed as well in a deadly shower against those who had thrown them.

When they ceased spinning, Tsubasa disentangled himself and nearly fell over. "Did you have to do that?" he complained, jabbing with two fingers at the neck of a black-eyed minion that had just managed to get up again. It hurt him to see the Grass forehead protector, but he squashed that feeling. It didn't matter what village they were from. They were trying to kill him.

"Where's Haruki?" Hamono shouted over the chaos, sliding into the Jyuuken stance and dispensing a series of destructive taps.

"You're the one with the Byakugan, right?!?!" Tsubasa vaulted over the heads of his assailants, snatching kunai pouches on the way.

* * *

"Megumi's alive!" Yuuta was forced to shout as he found himself back to back with Suzume. She nearly fainted from relief but instead moved closer to her year-mate as a wave of insects erupted from the small flaps of skin in his wrists. "One of the teams looking for you found him! We got a note from-" he ducked, dragging Suzume down with him. "-Hatake-san's summoning! They also say that reinforcements aren't too far away."

"Yuuta, that's probably the most I've ever heard you say." The pink-haired girl cried, copying an attack with her Sharingan and sending it right back at her assailant.

* * *

The rest got into teams of two or three, watching each others' backs as seemingly more and more minions melted out of the gloom. The chaos appeared to stop for a second, however, as a sickening _schlock_ rang out through the melee. All eyes turned to watch Hikaru wrench Haku's still-beating heart out of his chest and then shove it down her throat. "YES!" she screeched, looking positively insane with blood running down her chin and coating her hands. "I can feel it. The youth, the _power-_" Miho and Koga had strayed too close, thinking that they could get a good hit in while Hikaru was occupied. Tendrils of darkness leapt out of the floor to wrap around their ankles and creep up over their legs and torsos. Miho struggled for a moment, then gave a blood-curdling scream. The cavern erupted in madness again. (A/N: THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA!!!!!!)

* * *

"Oi! Fish-belly!" Katsuro ducked and rolled as something akin to a sword-sized kunai sliced the air over his head, decapitating a puppet wearing an Otogakure hitai-ate. A girl in calf-length red hakama vaulted right after it, swinging it around with wires that she had wrapped around her hands. He noticed her Byakugan.

"What did you just call me?" It'd been a long time since anybody had ever insulted him and he hadn't been able to hit back. He assumed that it would be a definite no-no to smack someone in the middle of a battle who was on your side.

"Fish-belly! How did you get so white?" He chanced a look at his bare torso, his shirt having long gone into the making of bandages.

"I could ask you why you the same thing, Meatball Head!" he retorted, their backs hitting each other as they faced outwards.

"Meatball Head?" The term was unfamiliar to Hanami.

"YOU NEVER NOTICED YOU HAVE FREAKING MEATBALLS ON YOUR HEAD?" one of the two buns she had her hair in was lopped off when she didn't block a shuriken in time. "Okay, well, _one _meatball, now?"

"Shut up!"

Ah, how battle brings forth the youthfulness in one's blood!

* * *

Asuka and Kazuki were among some of the more seasoned young people, along with Katsuro, and including Hamono and Hanami as both were as good as jounin, if not officially jounin. The length of chain that Asuka always had on her person now sported two blades at each end which she twirled expertly. Kazuki's oddly shaped giant kunai were doing the job as well; the twins working in perfect synchronization.

* * *

Namiki, having made friends with Izumi during the journey, came to appreciate the agility of the younger, scrawnier girl while Namiki, having nearly perfect chakra control, mimicked (albeit clumsily) the Jyuuken style of her brother and cousins, knowing in theory where the pressure points were. She thought, wryly, that she was probably doing more physical damage, what with her not-so-soft fists and clumsily closing pressure points. She felt a bone crack under her fingers and felt grim satisfaction. She didn't want to kill them, per say. They were under some sort of spell, she was sure. They probably didn't know what they were doing. She could feel a certain amount of consciousness and judgment behind their blank eyes, but it was only enough to make them deadly in battle and to avoid injuring themselves.

Bastardized Jyuuken aside, she had very low hopes of surviving their encounter, especially when Kameyo suddenly popped up beside her, face ash-colored in the flickering light of chakra. "The walls won't hold," she whispered, horrified. "The walls won't hold and we're trapped." Namiki didn't understand what the younger girl was babbling about at first… until she felt more than heard a low rumble through the floor that _wasn't_ the vibration of many people in furious combat.

* * *

A/N: Sorry about the gruesome imagery (NOT!). You may have noticed by now that I have upped the rating of this fanfic to "Mature". It's for language and violence. No adult situations, I assure you. –shudders- I will never, EVER right those you can be sure. I'm sorry I had a hard time being serious while writing this. –shame- Bye-bye Haku! -blows kisses- ILU GIRLY MAN!!!!

SPOILER: And… the cavern is about to collapse.


	33. To see my loved ones again

A/N: I started sniffling when I was typing this chapter. TT-TT

* * *

Koga tried to remember the meditation exercises Lee-sensei had half-heartedly made them learn. He strove to calm his racing heart and to use his head, not to struggle and squeal like a stuck pig. Jun was silent as a black tendril was smashing him against his partner's stomach, making it hard for both of them to breathe. 

Miho had stopped screaming as one of the vines widened and covered her mouth. She ordered her lungs to be happy with the air she was managing to inhale through just her nose. Even in the total chaos, she admired Koga for at least _trying _to keep a level head. _And what am I doing, panicking?_ She thought, somewhat hysterically. _I'm a NARA for kami's sake! I have to do _something…

And then it hit her. Well, it would hit Hikaru, but the _idea_ hit Miho. _Kage Shintenshin no jutsu! _She focused on her captor, blue eyes narrowed to slits as her shadow writhed and stretched; its movement lost among the flickering lights. She sent a powerful packet of chakra sailing through the air, praying that no outside interference messed with her concentration. She squeezed her eyes shut and _willed _her mind to meld with the other blonde's.

It was merely a light mental pressure at first that resisted her attempts, but as soon as she broke through the outer layer an onslaught of memory and will assaulted her senses. The mere force made her nose bleed and her breathing falter.

_You'd be Ino and Shikamaru's kid. _That voice made her skin crawl like beetles raced around under it. The brute strength of her mind bore down on her, playing with her before destroying her._Oh, I'm going to have fun killing _you_. Maybe almost as much fun as killing Katsuro-kun. Too bad Megumi-chan died before I could get to him. I so wish I could have at least tasted his blood._

_Show's what you know! _She managed to mentally squeak, trying with all of her might to push back. _He's alive!_

_Lies! No one could survive that, _Hikaru's voice was disdainful, then gruesomely sly. _Want to see what else no one can survive? _Thoughts came rushing out of the great catacombs that were Hikaru's mind. Horrible flashes of memory attacked Miho's concentration. People died by her own hands. Men and women tortured then burned alive right before her eyes. Recollection after recollection assailed her, nearly breaking her sanity but she held on with the grim determination of a savage pit-bull. How could one woman have done all of the things? How could _anyone _have done those things and lived with themselves? And underneath it all she felt Hikaru's sick pleasure at it.

But she felt something else underneath it. Small snippets of consciousness that were not Hikaru's wove into and out of those thoughts. They felt nothing like hers, and Miho had no idea where they had come from. Then slowly they began to make sense. They were weak at first, but ecame stronger than Hikaru as she tried to crush the Nara's mind.

* * *

_She was sitting on her front porch, looking at the sun rising over the sea of grass, gilding each individual blade with gold. She yawned, stretching her strong frame and shouldering her pack. She had a mission to the Land of Fang, and she hoped to get back within the month for her wife's birthday._

_She threw snowballs back and forth with a small boy with kind eyes. She laughed and coughed as a snowball managed to lodge itself right in her open mouth. She keeled over and heard her best friend laughing and asking if she would like another one right where he'd put the first one._

_A woman with cruel black eyes and gold-colored hair shoved her hand through her chest, ripping out her heart as the dying sun lit the mountain scenery. She wondered briefly what would become of her family before life was whisked from her body._

* * *

_**Spiteful bitch, **_that thought was neither Hikaru's nor Miho's, but it blasted through with tremendous force. _**Can't do your own dirty work, hmm?**_

_**I can't BELIEVE you did that, Hikaru! What am I saying? I can't believe no one CAUGHT you before! **_That voice seemed to be very familiar with Hikaru. Miho forced open her eyes, unable to break free from Hikaru's mind. The blonde woman's eyes were open as well; as completely black and lifeless as her puppets'.

"No…" she whispered. "You're all dead!"

_**We live on inside of you. Some of us, anyway. Nee-chan?**_

_**We're here to take you down a peg or twelve. Let go, Miho-san, **_that last voice was directed at Miho and she startled. _**It's going to hurt no little bit, but you need to let go. You need to destroy your contact, okay?**_

_**We'll be there to help, **_a gruff man's voice put in. The cheers resounding throughout the mental link were deafening.

_**Go!**_

She tried, she really did, to wrench away, but Hikaru was determined that at least one of her enemies' children would go down with her. But power flowed throughout her spirit as she felt her friends each lending her chakra. She thanked them all; taking their strength and bidding farewell to all of the captive spirits and simply let go.

* * *

Tsubasa knew something had changed when the woman that had had him in a sleeper's hold suddenly changed her grip and hugged him, planting a kiss on his cheek. "You have very clever little friends," she whispered, before letting him go and setting her now clear eyes on the Torakiba woman. Conflict all around the cavern ceased as the puppets' eyes cleared back to their normal colors. They all turned to face Hikaru, who stood like a deer caught in the sight of a loaded crossbow. Koga and Miho dropped out of her hold, Miho crumpling like a wet piece of paper to the floor. She didn't move, even when Jun pressed his cold nose into her ear, so Koga slung the skinny girl over his shoulder in a fireman's lift and escaped to the wall, hardly daring to believe his eyes. 

The others stopped to stare as well. Even Haruki paused in his rampage as he felt the tide shifting. The young people clustered together at what had once been the entrance to the cavern, now sealed by falling rocks. Katsuro was about to go join him but was stopped by a warm hand on his shoulder. He was weak from having leant Miho so much chakra and dreaded having to face another enemy. He looked up into the face of Katsuo Fukamori, hardly three inches' difference in their heights.

"You did good, kid," the former Cloud ninja said, grinning and ruffling his son's hair. His eyes were a deep gray like a cloudy evening sky over Kumogakure. A small scar split his left eyebrow. "Keep it up." He turned to go but Katsuro couldn't believe what was happening.

"Dad!" the word was out of his mouth before he knew what he was saying. Katsuo stopped and look back at him.

"Give my love to your mother and take care of her, okay?" he said, before joining the ring of other former puppets, even the ones who had died in the fight stood up and walked again.

"Namiki-san!" Namiki stared at Haku, who had trotted over to smile and wave cheerfully, though there was a gaping hole in his chest. She didn't even pause to wonder at how he knew her name. "Tell everyone I said hi, okay?"

"My wife prolly thinks I left 'er and the girls," a man with the Iwagakure forehead protector was telling Kameyo seriously. "'Er name's Michiru and 'er father's family owns the dango place on-"

"Kuroishi Street, righ'?" Kameyo interrupted. The man nodded, his broad mouth quirked in a wry smile.

"You'd be a Kenichiro's daughter then, mm? Tell them back 'ome that I went out fighting." He gave her a thumbs up and joined the ring.

The others had similar messages that they wanted sent to their families and home villages. The genin were all too willing to comply, mystified by the blue-white chakra gathering in the ring.

"Haruki-san, calm down. You're not going to go mad anymore." A hand that burned and froze at the same time descended over his eyes. The rosy tinge was gone from his vision and Kotone smiled at him when she lifted her hand. "It was nice meeting you. You, too, Suzume-san!" she called, turning to go. "I'm sorry I was ever prejudiced against the Uchiha." Suzume released her hold on the Sharingan and linked her arm through Haruki's.

"Let's get out of the way," she murmured. He allowed himself to be dragged to where the others were congregated, Jun worriedly whining at Miho still over Koga's shoulder.

"Fifteen years, Hikaru! _Fifteen years _I've been here. Do you know how much I missed?" Katsuo snarled. Hikaru merely stared at them all, pure terror in her eyes.

"THEY THOUGHT I RAN AWAY AND BRANDED ME A MISSING NIN!" a woman from Waterfall roared. "I BROUGHT SHAME UPON MY FAMILY BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"You can't get out of is this time," Kotone waggled her finger at her enemy. "Nii-chan and I came back just to get you. Our job as shinigami is to keep the peace that you have disrupted."

"Bye now!" a man from Rain said cheerfully. "Don't come back now, ya here?" Blue-white chakra collected under their feet, burning white-hot. There was a huge vibration like a shockwave and the sound seemed to be sucked from the world. Their chakra flashed stark white, too bright to see and the genin looked away, crouching together as the walls crumbled down.

* * *

A/N: No comments… about to start crying, though. If ANYONE decides to draw the part where they're saying their goodbyes and glowing all blue-white and forming a circle, I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER. –bows- I would do it myself but, alas, I lack photoshop, a tablet, and any sort of ability to color. –depressed sigh- I shall just keep writing, and mayhap the youthfulness of my poor skills shall inspire a brave young lotus to bloom in artistic ability!!!!!!! YOSH! 


	34. Parents have their uses :

_I think my head exploded. And any minute now I am going to feel my liquefied brains trickling out my nose… if I still have a nose._ The dull roaring that always fills intense silences jammed his ears, making coherent thought almost impossible. _Wait. If my head had exploded, no way it would hurt _this_much._ He conceded._Well, time to hazard a bit of speech._"Mmmmmfffrrrr…." Was all he got out. It sounded like a sick rat being shoved down a drain.

"Haruki?" someone rasped by his ear. He opened an eye to perfect darkness.

"Szme?" he mumbled; his jaw shut by the rocks crammed all around him.

"The mountain fell down with us underneath it." Like he needed anyone to tell him _that_.

"No shi' Sherlk." He growled. They lapsed into silence again. He could hear the faint rustlings and mutterings of his friends around him trying to figure out ways of escaping.

"Szme…" he started.

"Yes. She's gone," Suzume didn't have to hear the rest of his pained sentence to understand him.

"Miho?"

"Hey, does anyone know where Miho is? Sound off!" Suzume had to whisper so that she didn't deafen anyone by the echoes against the rocks. It was a miracle that they weren't all crushed to death.

"Tsbsa!" Tsubasa croaked.

"We're here," Hamono said wearily with a squeak from Hanami.

"Nnnnnnnnnn!" Jun whined.

"We're good," Koga said.

"I feel li' crp. An when I feel li' crp, I no' happy." Katsuro muttered grumpily.

"Asuka and Kazuki here," Asuka moaned.

"Me," Izumi croaked, her throat dry.

"I want to go home," Namiki whispered. "Miho…?" no answer.

"Wait… whose foot is this?"

"YOWCH! That's me you idiot!"

"Urrg… Nara?"

"Nice try, Torakiba. Now please stop grabbin' my breasts and maybe I won' kill you righ' away."

"Wha- Kameyo? YEEK!"

"Fufufufu… Ktsro screams li' a lil' girl." Haruki sniggered. "Ow! You hi' meh!"

"Sorry," Suzume said, but she didn't sound sorry at all.

"We have two hours before the air runs out and we all suffocate," Yuuta rasped. "My insects… they're trying to find a way out. _They_can get to the surface… but if we move-"

"We die," Kameyo finished for him. "The stones say that they are supporting each other and if even a single one of them shifts, they will all come down on us." There was a small tapping sound.

"Kazuki says it was nice knowing you all," Asuka translated into the darkness. "Ditto."

"_Now_whose foot is this?" Koga wanted to know. There was no answer.

"Can you feel the rubber sole? I think I broke my leg and I can't feel my toes," Hanami asked.

"I think I broke my _spine_," Tsubasa grumbled.

"Umm… it's a spiral sole, so it's Konoha. I can't scent who it is… wait! Fishnets. Okay, it's Miho." Koga confirmed.

"Can you wake her up?"

"Naw. Out like a light. She was unconscious before the…the… when _they_ left." He finished lamely. No one felt up to talking about what had happened. An uncomfortable silence followed, interspersed with wistful recollections of their homes. Finally, after one hour and forty-five minutes had passed and the air was nearly un-breathable, Hanami spoke.

"It was nice to meet you all," she said. "We're going to die down here, I guess, so let's make the best of it. Any last words?"

"Yes, in fact. My dad and others are coming," Yuuta said with more confidence and smugness than any of the others had ever heard out of him before.

"What?" Namiki squeaked. "Where are they?"

"They're righ' over'ead," Kameyo said hoarsely, struggling to breathe. "The rocks say so!"

"So how do we get out if they shift the rocks and we're dead?" Hamono gasped.

"Aburame! Talk to your dad with those bugs or wha'ever. You can move the stone the bloke from Cloud is standin' on _if_you suppor' the one the Konoha ninja to 'is lef' is standin' on," Kameyo said.

"How do you know which villages their from and whose to their left?" Tsubasa asked.

"The shapes of the soles of their shoes and the direction they're pointin' in. The rocks can feel i' and _will you 'urry up, Aburame?_"

Yuuta quickly complied. There was progress, but it was slow. The air was nearly gone before a faint draft accompanied by a small pinprick of light pierced the blackness. "We're saved!" Koga said giddily.

"Kids? You all right?"

"YES WE'RE JUST FINE AND DANDY!" Kameyo found the breath to bellow like an enraged bull. "NOW WILL YOU PLEASE 'URRY UP? IT'S A BI' TIGH' DOWN 'ERE!"

"Dad?" Izumi called, having a good idea who the 'bloke from Cloud' was.

"Just hang tight, Izu! Hey, Lee, give me a hand." There was some grunting and the shaft of light widened. They could see their predicament better. They were wedged belly-and-back into the rocks with barely enough room to breathe and speak.

"Namiki? Is anyone hurt down there?"

"Miho's unconscious, Mom!" Namiki answered back. "Maybe a concussion… I have no idea."

"My arm's gone and broke itself," Tsubasa put in.

"My leg's no good," Hanami said miserably.

"It's only a greenstick break," Hinata's voice said. "We can see you, sweetie."

"'We'? Oh, I actually _forgot_," Hamono gasped. "Byakugan! Oh, freaking hell…. Hullo, father."

"You_forgot _you could use the Byakugan? Oh, Hamono…"

"Well I'm SORRY, Tou-san, I forgot-"

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP, HAMONO?" The last rock they had moved had stopped Haruki's jaw from being smashed. "I'd really love to chat and all but if _someone _up there could get me out? I _really_ need a bath and something to eat." There were chimes of agreement from the others except for Miho, who was unconscious.

Carefully, the adults widened the hole and gingerly extracted their children one by one. Immediately, Suzume shrieked and flung herself at her father, sobbing hysterically. Sasuke hugged her close then held his daughter out at arms' length, looking her over. "What did you do to your_hair_?" he asked, dumbfounded by the spiky, dirty pink mess that had once been a glossy, glorious mane.

"Oh, umm, I'm trying a new look," Suzume responded airily. "Long hair is so much work."

"Ugh. Your mother said the exact same thing the time she cut all of her hair off."

"Is that everyone?" Hamono, surrounded by jounin, did her best to act as cool and collected as the rest. She did a sweep with her Byakugan, noticing with interest the lack of bones anywhere.

"I think so."

"Sora, weren't there two others?" A woman that looked a lot like Tsubasa had yet to let him out of her embrace.

"They left, Ma," he said, trying to loosen her hold on him.

"There are no bodies or any signs of struggle," Neji Hyuuga said slowly, not quite sure he had heard right.

"No signs of struggle, unless you coun' the 'ole mountain fallin' down!" Kameyo cackled. The other genin, cracking under the strain, stress, and then relief, cracked up and couldn't stop laughing.

"And no bodies, unless you count her cronies!" Asuka gasped for breath, holding her sides as they all burst into fresh gales of laughter, the adults looking worried and no little bit disturbed.

"_Can we go now?" _Kazuki signed.

"I ag- ow! Ma!" Tsubasa wriggled away from his mother as she tried to wipe the worst of the grime off of his face with her handkerchief.

"You're absolutely filthy. And so skinny!"

"Dirt never hurt anybody," Kiba Inuzuka said, ruffling his nephew's hair.

"Haruki!" Izumi cried blissfully.

"What'd I do now?" Haruki asked, rather stupidly. But Izumi scooped up her brown rabbit and continued to coo and exclaim over what a cute and smart bunny he was.

"Its name is Haruki?" No one had ever really seen the Hyuuga clan head smile before, but the tinniest twitch of his lips might be called such as he spoke to his son in all seriousness.

"Yes, his name is Haruki-bunny," Haruki sighed, defeated. Hanami patted her not-so-little brother on the back, grinning and looking extraordinarily like her mother, though only one bun adorned her head after the fight.

"Heh. Haruki-chan's an uncle!"

"Tch. Children." Hamono sniffed haughtily.

"We should go now. Sunagakure is nearest and Miho-chan doesn't _look_like she's in any danger, but she's unconscious," Hinata broke in, checking Miho's as she was laid-out peacefully on the grass.

"Wait. Where are we?" Katsuro said, troubled. He shot Hanami a dirty look when "Fish-belly!" came from her direction, thinly disguised between coughs.

"The Land of Ricefields. Suzume please don't use a kunai for that," Sasuke Uchiha plucked the kunai and signal mirror his daughter had stolen from his belt-pouch without him noticing. She scowled.

"Then isn't the Land of Lightning and moth-… Kumogakure nearest?" Katsuro looked suspiciously around their group.

"There is war in the Land of Lightning," Shino Aburame said, hands resting on his son's shoulders while Yuuta looked uncommonly smug. After all, _he _had told the others where he and his friends were trapped. "Suna is the closest_safe _place."

"And NO you cannot help," Kagemaru said sternly, giving his cousin's only child a severe look. They had the same black hair, but where Katsuro's face was angular and catlike, Kagemaru more closely resembled some bird of prey. "Kurai's already having a tough enough time managing _without _having to worry about you getting your neck in trouble where she can see you. As soon as we've got you lot to Suna-" he gazed around the group of genin. "-I'm heading back to Cloud to take over so that your mother can come see you without having to worry too much."

Katsuro tried to nod indifferently. He didn't want to come off as a Momma's Boy, but it was hard to _not _be a Momma's Boy when your mother was Kurai Torakiba. "Then let's get ou' of 'ere. I'm _starvin'_," Kameyo said.

One moment a number of people had stood around the fallen mountain. The next, there was no sign of their ever having been there, save for the slight impression in the grass where Miho had lain.

They were on their way home.

* * *

A/N: -profanity- HOLY CRAP THE END IS IN SIGHT. –swoon- I never thought this day would come. I started typing this on Thanksgiving AND I HAVE ALL THIS WRITING IN NOT EVEN FOUR MONTHS.

Blows the mind, doesn't it? And this is the ONLY writing project I've finished and actually been happy with. The other two were utter crap. I actually like thiiiiiiiis! –huggles fanfic-

And don't worry. I won't be saying good bye to thee characters forever. You'll see them again sometime in another fanfic. This has given me the confidence and I think I may actually be capable of FINISHING a story. Oki, ja matane! I'll see you again soon!


	35. Ja, matane?

The war was over.

Apparently, the Lightning Lord was found and it turned out he'd been dead for over a month. The one manipulating the war had been a fake. The Earth Lord quickly declared peace and the Raikage was temporarily in charge of the _entire country _for a little bit, until they could get the succession of whom was the next Lightning Lord figured out. While that added more work to her already over-filled plate, the Raikage hired all of the educated civilians to help with filing and the rest in helping to rebuild the village. Kagemaru had gone back and was in charge as her second-in-command, which left her free to do what she wanted to the most:

To see her son.

She'd sneaked up on him unwittingly. He'd been standing in the doorway in Suna's hospital, now with chuunin and jounin stationed everywhere to guard the occupants until they were sure the storm had blown over. She'd let out a shriek she hadn't meant to utter and hugged him tight.

Katsuro's yelp was cut off as he fought to breathe, the others looking up in alarm but soon relaxing and laughing at his predicament. "Oi… mom! I'm fine," he croaked. Kurai let him go and spun him around, moving out into the hallway where they had a bit more privacy.

"Oh kami, Katsuro! Are you all right?" Her son grimaced.

"I'm in one piece. I think that counts as 'all right'. But… okay…" he looked around shiftily before admitting, "I missed you too." Kurai grinned, about to speak, then paused.

"You're skinny but you managed to get taller." Before he had been a tiny bit shorter, he now had at least three inches on his mother. He shrugged.

"Such is the wonder of youth."

"And I've read the reports, but I want to hear it from y-" the Raikage said quickly, not letting go of her son, when he interrupted her.

"I saw dad."

She blinked, took a breath, then blinked some more. "Wha…what?" he squeaked.

"I saw dad," Katsuro repeated. "He was one of those puppet things Hikaru set up." He hated to see that tortured look on his mother's face; how tears streamed down her face and her hands covered her mouth in horror.

"Oh kami… I'm _so _sorry, Katsuro! It's all my fault! I should've killed her when I had the chance! I thought I _did _kill her but there's no ex-"

"You couldn't kill your own sister, mom," Katsuro said softly. "You couldn't've. It's not you."

"But it gave her the chance to… to take Katsuo…" she bit down on her bottom lip to keep it from trembling. "Are… are you quite sure? It could've been someone else."

"Scar right here-" Katsuro said, pointing to his left eyebrow. "Gray eyes and hair, parted to the left as well. We have the same build and jaw-line. Oh, and…" he looked down at the ground, smiling slightly. "-he sends his love."

* * *

"Is she okay?" Suzume, fully recovered, peeked out of the door.

"She's fine," Miho replied lazily, scratching her arm where they had put in the IV. Her parents had been in earlier and Tsuno was off finding something to eat somewhere with Koga and Yuuta. Haruki was sprawled out on the other bed in the room, snoring slightly as the frosted windows let in a soft sort of daylight. Asuka and Kazuki, at the news of their deceased mother and elder brother, had gone home to bury them and comfort their newly-widowed father. Izumi had also gone home to be with her mother and brother.

Hanami and Hamono, after Hanami making Haruki promise to stay out of trouble, had also gone back to Konoha with Namiki. The only ones left were Haruki, Miho, Suzume, Tsubasa, and Kameyo and they lounged together in Miho's hospital room.

"So… whaddya think abou' those Mist guys?" Kameyo wondered after a while.

"Hmm? Who?" Tsubasa and Suzume were pouring over a book on medical jutsu, borrowed from the head medic ninja. Tsubasa was looking slightly less bird-like after over a week's worth of four square meals a day and Suzume had gotten her hair evened out. It looked like her father's cut only pink.

"Those guys from Kirigakure. Ya know, Haku and Kotone?" Silence descended, but it was not an uncomfortable one. It was a thoughtful time of quiet as they reflected upon the strange- but kind- pair.

"I asked Mom," Suzume began, leaning against the wall and nudging Haruki's sleeping form to make more room for herself and Tsubasa. "She got all sad. So did Dad and Uncle Naruto when I asked them as well."

"The Hyuuga Archives have older versions of the Bingo Book," Haruki, apparently, had only been cat-napping as he sat up, yawning and stretching. "There was one 'Haku' listed as a Missing Nin masquerading as a Hunter Nin accompanying the former Swordsman of the Mist, Momochi Zabuza."

"Did you memorize the contents of that book?" Tsubasa asked, blinking.

"Naw. I like knowing my enemies, past and present."

"And Kiyoizumi Kotone… Uchiha Itachi, my uncle, killed her about twenty years ago," Suzume said softly. "She's also in the archives for killing Hoshigaki Kisame, another of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and a member of the Akatsuki."

"And my sister killed him and took his place in the Akatsuki." They all looked up suddenly at the Raikage leaning against the doorway, arms crossed over her chest. Katsuro shrugged and sat down at the end of Miho's bed. "Looks like you got visited by Shinigami."

"Shinigami? No way," Kameyo snorted, waving her hand airily. "Shinigami don't exist."

"Do you have a better explanation, sweetheart?" The Raikage asked sweetly. Kameyo, recognizing the tone, muttered, "No ma'am," and lapsed into silence.

"But if in fact they're spirits come back from the dead, what were they doing chained up with the rest of us? How come they let themselves get killed?" Haruki asked, outraged. "They could stand up for themselves better than we can."

"You didn't hear the stories as a child…? Oh, of course not, Neji never liked fairytales. Shinigami are guardian spirits who come and watch over certain people that they have a sort of connection to. Like… say a shinigami had a friend when they were alive. If the friend is still living, the shinigami will watch over them."

"That still doesn't explain _why _Haku and Kotone let themselves get thrown around," Katsuro said doubtfully. Kurai sniffed.

"I thought I told you these stories when you were little! I'm sure at least my mother told you, at any rate. The shinigami can only act as humans: therefore, they're no more powerful or better off than they were when they were alive. So, Haku and Kotone were just as they were when they were alive. They must've died young to be able to get taken along with you lot."

"They were my age, or thereabouts," Miho said softly. "Can't they make themselves look younger or something?" Kurai thought for a moment.

"To a certain extent. I've taken the liberty of looking back at the records. Haku died at fifteen, Kotone Kiyoizumi and eighteen."

"That's so young," Suzume murmured, cowed.

"People die young in our line of work, Suzume-chan," Kurai plucked her Raikage hat out of empty air. "Be glad you all weren't one of them. C'mon, I believe your parents are here to take you all home."

* * *

Epilogue….

It was winter in Konoha. Frost glittered on buildings and on the ground. Breath misted before mouths and a glow came to cheeks and eyes.

"Oi! Haruki!" Hanami shrugged off her coat as she strode down the hall. She had ceased to treat her little brother like dirt after the incident of six months previous. Megumi poked her head out of the door to the training yard.

"Do you have to shout?" he demanded. He'd grown a good three inches, almost catching up to Haruki's height. Hanami bopped him on the head as she went out the door.

"Haruki, letter from Kumogakure," Hanami went on. Suzume and Haruki stopped in their sparring. Megumi muttered something irritably and snatched the letter from his cousin.

"Oi, it's to all of us." He said, looking surprised. "It's from Katsuro!"

"Open it, Megumi!" Suzume ran over and they all sat on the porch, Hanami bracing her hands on her knees and reading over Megumi's shoulder while she stood.

"_I know Bun-head's reading this too,_" Megumi began reading. Hanami scowled. "_So tell her I said hello._"

"Hello to you too, Fish-belly," Hanami growled.

"Stop it. Your flirting is disgusting," Haruki gagged, making a show of almost forcing his finger down his throat. Suzume smacked him for being gross.

"_To Megumi Uzumaki, Suzume Uchiha, and Haruki Hyuuga._

_Stuff is pretty much back to normal here. The new Lightning Lord is still sucking up to mom. They know she's pissed from getting her involved in a war she didn't agree with. The Rai Daimyo has connections to the luxury trade, and now our village smells like white chocolate and oranges._"

"Oooh, let's visit!" Suzume said enthusiastically. She'd kept her hair short and was wearing earmuffs and a jacket against the cold.

"_Izumi says hello, as do Asuka and Kazuki. The village is completely rebuilt now and everything looks strange all newly white-washed instead of gray with age like the clouds in our skies. Oh, yes, and the cheese trade has come here. Did you know that Lightning Country is also_dairy _country? I never really noticed it until we were looking at ways of getting a better income to help rebuild things. The villagers got to thinking and what do they come up with? Cows, of all things. It's kind of nice to have extra income for the village, and we can't do anything else agriculturally with the lack of sunshine and perpetually inclement weather. We have no mineral deposits of any kind and people get tired of buying pine incense, I guess._

"_So it's dairy. I'm going to try again at becoming a chuunin in a few months. Will I see you guys there?_

_Hope you're well,_

_Katsuro Torakiba_

_PS: And if Bun-head has so much say, tell her to write her own letter._"

"So, what do you say? Shall we try again and getting to chuunin level?" Haruki slung an arm about both of his friend's necks.

"Ugh. Do we dare?" Megumi said.

"This time, I don't think anything will go wrong. Or at least as wrong as last time," Suzume said, resting her head on Haruki's shoulder, her pink hair bright against his brown jacket. "Chuunin together?"

"Aw, what the hell. Let's do it."

* * *

A/N: OH YEAH THE END BEE-YOTCH. –touchdown dance- I made it! –praises kami- HOLY CRAP IN A HAT ZOHEMGEE IT IS THE END. I FINISHED A STORY I ACTUALLY LIKE AND 92 FREAKING PAGES OF SIZE 10 TYPE AND TIMES NEW ROMAN FONT. I STARTED THIS ON FREAKING THANKSGIVING AND HERE'S WHERE WE ARE OH MY GOD.

I cannot even begin to stress the significance of this moment on the rest of my career. –dies-

So. Thank you _so _much for sticking with me and the crowd throughout the entire story. I love you guys, really. This is not the end of Haruki, Suzume, Megumi, and the rest. Oh GOD no. I will NEVER say good bye to these guys. As long as I have an idea, I'll write with them. We've become good friends over these three months (fanfic completed on January 18, 2008 at 10:10 pm on a Friday). If you have any ideas for future stories or things you'd like to see these guys do, please feel free to shout them out! I'd love to hear your feedback because, after you, YOU are the ones that make these stories happen.

Suzume: Arigatou gozaimasu!

Megumi and Haruki: -bow-

Katsuro: You may see me and Bun-head together in the future.

Hanami: What's that, fish-belly?

Katsuro: -leering- You know you're lookin' forward to it.

Hanami: Oh yeah? –bats eyelashes- What makes you think tha-

LC(Lunecramoisie AKA me): OH MY GOD YOU'RE DISGUSTING GET A ROOM.

The rest of the cast: THANK YOU FOR READING AND WE HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN REAL SOON!

Please stay in touch. "Diary of an AnBu" is in the queue!


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